Along Came A Spider
by El Hustino
Summary: .:SPOILERS:. After awakening from his final fight with his brother, Knives contemplates his next move. Will Knives still wish to destroy humanity once he meets his creation, a new minion of unstoppable power? [VashMeryl]
1. Prologue: PAIN

A/N: Alrighty then everyone! I, El Hustino, here with a new story. For those of you who are familiar with my other story, Trigun Sleepover, you may be surprised that I am able to write seriously. Well, here's your chance to see if I'm any good at it. So, read and review! But no flames. If you flame me, I will take it, show it to my friends, and we will laugh at you for a very long time…and then we will hunt you down. Understand?

WARNING: This, along with future chapters, takes place after the series so that, of course means major spoilers. If you haven't seen all of Trigun, don't read this. Go watch Trigun.

DISCLAIMER: If you think, for whatever reason, that I am trying to convince you that I am Yoshiro Nightow, then, I'm sorry, but you would happen to be an idiot.

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**Along Came A Spider**

Prologue: PAIN

I lay here in this bed sleeping…dreaming…dying. Not dying in the physical sense, oh, no. My body is still alive, although my arms cannot move no matter how much I try, and my legs…well, I still have yet to learn if I still possess my legs, although I'm quite sure I do. My chest heaves with every effort of breathing, the wound between my lungs sending waves of pain through the nerves in my torso.

I don't feel any of this of course…that is one of the few good points about being in a coma. I just remember that this was how I felt when I had been felled...when I had been defeated…when I had lost everything.

But I am far from physically dead. It would take much more than these minor wounds to kill one such as myself. 

Don't misunderstand, though. I am dying. Dying in the most horrible fashion. It is my soul that creeps towards the dark abyss that is death. My soul is what decays as I lay here motionless. 

I have lost all hope…all because of _him. _

_He _is the one that caused all that my mind and body now suffers through. Our clash of opinions led to it and consequently led to the breaking of this body, but despite this…I still believe…I still _know _that I am right…that my self-appointed destiny is one of truth.

I knew my choice was, and still is, the right one.

The regret at failing all those I sought to free from their enslavement haunts my dreams as I lay in this numbing sleep, adding more to the pain in my heart.

I swear on my life, despite the helplessness I feel, that when I awaken and am fully healed, I will fulfill me destiny and purge myself of this sadness and pain…even if it means killing _him._

For I am Millions Knives and I will release by brethren from the shackles placed upon them by the ignorant humans…and if my 'dear' brother Vash gets in my way once again, I will _not_ hesitate to destroy him.

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A/N: Well, this Prologue was short, but that's why I also posted the first chapter along with it. So either review this now and read chapter two and review that, or just go onto chapter two put the two reviews together. I don't mind…as long as you review.


	2. Chapter One: PORTRAIT

A/N: Since the prologue was so short, I decided to post the first chapter along with it. Don't forget to review. Oh, and if you see this: ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ then that means it's a different scene or something, okay? Not really that hard. 

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Along Came A Spider 

Chapter One: PORTRAIT

In a small village near LR, two men sat at a table. One held a large pad of white paper which he continually drew on. The other man, not able to see what the other was drawing, nor caring, stared across the road at a lone man gently rocking in an old wooden chair. 

The man across the street wore a pair of old brown pants and a dusty white shirt. His hair shone like gold compared to his worn out clothing and stood atop his head like wheat swaying in a breeze. A light smile, one that showed relief of a great burden being accomplished, rested upon his face. He continually glanced at the sky and watched the people going about their business. He was especially fond of watching children, although they were all made by their parents to avoid the man living in that particular house.

"I still can't believe it's him," the man doing the staring said. The drawing man, who only looked away from his work to casually look at the man across the street, only nodded. The first man shook his head in disbelief. No matter how many times someone would tell him, or how many times he saw it for himself, he couldn't believe it. "The one and only humanoid typhoon…"

The drawing man nodded.

"You'd expect sitting across the street from someone like him, we'd be a little more on edge…ya know…I'd expected half the town to have gotten up and left when they heard about him living here."

"Yeah, well, the ones that got rich from hitting that water vein have left, and as for everyone else," the drawing man spoke, "they probably would leave if they could. It's not like he's done anything, but still…it is Vash the Stampede over there."

"I'm surprised he came back, after what they did to him…dragging him by a rope across the ground. Most men would have been swearing their heads off and tossing threats left and right after something like that."

"He's a lot tougher than he looks, I'll give him that. And that might be an understatement considering what he's been through," he erased a little from his drawing.

"Well yeah, he slept for ten days straight the first time he came here, then they dragged him around, and then he leaves for a couple days and comes back in worse shape than when he left carrying some unconscious guy over his shoulder. Then he sleeps for another two weeks.," he shook his head, "I'd just like to know what could possibly be bad enough to make a guy like that sleep for that long."

"It must have been pretty bad considering the fact that even after he got dragged around and beaten, he was walking around afterwards like nothing happened. I've even heard that the man he brought with him is still asleep."

Vash the Stampede casually looked around, and then set his gaze onto the sky. The twin suns were generous that day; it was, compared to normal weather, fairly cool and windy. The Humanoid Typhoon's smile grew even bigger as he gazed into the blue skies.

"Strange," the man with the pad said.

"What?"

"I just think it's weird that a man with a reputation like his would be able to smile like that. If I had a hundreds of hotshot bounty hunters looking for me left and right, I know I wouldn't be that happy."

"Yeah, now that you mention it, it is kinda weird…" He noticed that the other man was done with whatever it was he had been drawing. "Are you going to show me that, or what?"

The drawer smiled, "Of course!" He turned the pad around. On it was a drawing of Vash the Stampede's face, both a frontal and a profile. By the odd look on the other man's face, he could tell he had confused him, "You know how Vash the Stampede has always been identified by rumors or people that had already seen him? Well, I just figured that I could get quite a bit of money for an actual picture of the 60,000,000,000 double-dollar man."

"I suppose you're right…" the other man said, looking at the sketch skeptically, "I never did remember seeing any of those wanted posters with pictures."

"Now all I have to do is sell it to someone…I wonder who would pay more, the Feds or Bernardelli? I probably could make a copy and sell one to each…"

As the two men continued their conversation, Vash the Stampede, the fearsome Humanoid Typhoon, watched happily as two children played tag with one another, far from his spot on the deck of his new home.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Inside of the home Vash, the Insurance Girls, and a comatose Knives occupied, Meryl Stryfe, Bernardelli insurance agent, was making salmon sandwiches. It wasn't what anyone would call her most admirable job, but yet she did it with a smile on her face.

Since Vash was still incredibly exhausted from his fight with his brother, he could barely walk for short periods of time, Meryl decided that she and Millie would help Vash and his brother as much as possible…which, at first, Vash, being the stubborn man that he was, didn't want the woman to go too far out of their way for him.

This led to Meryl finding Vash wandering the house when he was supposed to be resting. After a few, let's say, 'encounters' between the two, Vash got the hint that the girl was not kidding about helping…he also got a few migraine headaches and a couple lumps on the head from Meryl's method of, literally, bashing the idea into his skull.

Millie, being the sensitive and kindhearted person that she was, had been a little worried about Meryl's method of getting Vash to listen. The shorter girl used the logic that if it got him to rest, then it was a good method.

Besides, how many people could really get hurt by a suitcase to the head?

Meryl looked over to see what Millie was doing. The taller insurance girl, Millie Thompson, was also making sandwiches for herself and Knives. Of course, Meryl had pointed out, on multiple occasions, that people in comas generally didn't eat much, but Millie, once again due to her thoughtful nature, used that logic that he would be hungry once he woke up and had been leaving plates of them in Knives's room everyday. The sandwiches she made were also salmon, since no one knew what Millions Knives, human-hater, would like in his sandwich; the generous girl thought that since Vash liked them so much, then his brother must, too.

Meryl didn't have the heart to point out that Vash and Knives were opposites when it came to everything, so the girl's theory was probably wrong. She was just glad Millie was finally acting like her old self. Either that, or this was just another one of those things she does when she wants to forget her sorrow.

Meryl grabbed a nearby box and placed the plates of sandwiches atop it. Inside the box was a certain something she had noticed the last time she had been traveling through the streets of town. She left Milly alone to finish making her meal and went to the front door of the house.

Meryl stopped at the door and looked at the box and plats of food that filled her hands. There weren't any tables nearby, but she couldn't open the door with her hands full. Then she noticed that the door wasn't completely shut; it was unlatched and open by an inch or so.

She lifted her leg and kicked the door the rest of the way open…or at least that's what she thought would have happened. For some reason there was a loud thumping sound and then the sound of what resembled someone falling to the ground. Meryl, this time pushing the door open gently with her shoulder, stepped onto the deck of the building.

And there, laying on the ground, clutching his face and tears streaking his cheeks, was Vash. Meryl set the box and plates onto a small table between the two chairs that were on the deck, and looked down at Vash. "Vash, what are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" Vash moved his hand from his face. A little droplet of blood plopped out of his nose. "I was going to see if you wanted some help and then—BAM!" Vash quickly opened and closed his fingers to simulate an explosion or something, which reminded Meryl of something a child would do, "The door flies open and hits me in the face!"

Meryl bent down and grabbed onto the wrist of Vash's natural arm and tried pulling him up. "I'm sorry Va—"she noticed two men across the street snickering at them. Meryl could have sworn, by the movement of their lips, that one of them said something to the extent of 'Typhoon's girlfriend'. Meryl blushed and let go of Vash's arm, which made him fall back down with another thump and elicited another "Oww…" from the already wounded man.

"Well," Meryl said after making sure she wasn't blushing, "That's what you get! You should have been resting, not wandering around."

"Wha…" Vash said, wiping the speck of blood of his white shirt, the same shirt and pants he had worn when he had stayed with Lena and her grandmother, "that somehow makes this my fault?! I'm not the one throwing doors open and hitting wounded people in the face!"

"How was I supposed to know you were there?" Meryl pointed out, "Besides, like you just said, you're _wounded, _remember? You're lucky I'm letting you sit out here, instead of sleeping in you're bed. It's your fault that you were standing outside the door like an idiot."

Vash pulled himself back into his chair, rubbing his back and nose, at the same time. "All you have to say is sorry…" Vash said quietly and not looking at Meryl.

"I did, you just weren't listening," Meryl sat in the other chair; she picked up one of the plates of sandwiches and shoved them into Vash's face, "I made these for you," she said without looking him in the face, "Now eat them or I'll change my mind and feed them to that cat or something." Meryl gestured to a little black cat sitting at the end of the deck. It turned to its head to them and let out some sort of 'nyao' sound.

Vash grabbed the plate, instantly smiling and forgetting about his wounds, "Thanks Meryl!" He stuffed a couple into his mouth and looked at the short woman, "Theeth are gooth!" Vash said with a full mouth.

 "Don't mention it…" Meryl wiped the crumbs and saliva from Vash's mouth off her face, "Literally…don't mention it."

"What's in the box?" Vash asked after swallowing another mouthful of salmon sandwich. Before Meryl could answer, Vash started sniffing the air, "Wait…that smell!" Vash lunged for the box. Meryl, anticipating this, grabbed it and pulled the box and her plate of sandwiches out of the reach of the gunman.

"Not until you finish lunch!"

"But I want some donuts!!" Vash lunged again, but Meryl held the box of donuts further out of his reach. He leaned further in his chair and flailed his arms at the box, but Meryl was able to lean to the side and hold it just barely out of the reach of Vash's fingers. He gave up and sat back into his chair, crossing his arms and sticking his lip out like a little kid. 

"That's so cold…"

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A/N: Yeah, not much happening…yet. This story will be from Knives's point-of-view, but Mr. Millions hasn't woken up quite yet. Oh, and this story will have more than just the four of them trying to live together. In fact, there's an original character that will soon be making an appearance.

So, it's time for you to review! Give me advice or whatnot, but most importantly, just tell me if it's starting out any good, even though nothing interesting has happened yet.


	3. Chapter Two: AWAKENING

A/N: -cries- I am SO happy so many people reviewed! Thanks!! And now for the next installment! Hopefully this'll start getting a little more interesting. So read and review!

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**Along Came A Spider**

Chapter Two: AWAKENING

Milly Thompson happily hummed to herself as she finished preparing her own meal. Her nose twitched from the salty smelling salmon as she made the sandwiches for Vash's brother, but she just smiled at the sour sensation. 

The girl was just happy that Vash had returned; she had not ever seen him, in all the time that Milly spent around the man, this happy and that was saying a lot. It seemed like Vash had just finally managed to overcome some sort of burden that had plagued him since…well, since even before Milly had ever met him.

The insurance agent didn't really think that deeply about the situation. She was just glad that Vash had returned in once piece and that Meryl finally calmed down. For those few days that Vash was gone, Meryl was more anxious and bossy than usual, but Milly, of course, understood why and she never got upset.

In fact, it made her smile and laugh, although at the time Meryl didn't pay enough attention to notice Milly was laughing, since the small woman was preoccupied with worrying about the Humanoid Typhoon getting hurt. Of course, Meryl would never admit that to anyone, not even herself. This made Milly laugh, too.

_Meryl can be so silly. She worries about Mr. Vash so much, but she's the only one that doesn't notice it, _Milly thought to herself. Milly finished putting the last slice of bread onto the final sandwich. Milly grabbed a couple packages of pudding and placed them onto the plate.

Milly didn't know anything about Knives, much less what kinds of food he liked, so she decided to take a wild guess and give him Vash's favorite meal, along with her own favorite dessert. Which, on occasion, happened to be Milly's own meal of choice, although Meryl said that much pudding for dinner wasn't good for her.

Milly went from the kitchen and up the stairs towards Knives's room. She did this all with a smile…although many would say, even the usually emotionally-blind Meryl, that her new smiles were lacking a bit when it came to sincerity. Milly was just glad that she could do something that would distract her from feeling the hurt within herself.

She sniffled a little before she realized what she was thinking about. She wiped her tears on her shoulder, since her hands were preoccupied. 

_No…I can't think of him right now…I don't want to be sad…he wouldn't want me to be like that…_

She reached Knives's bedroom and gently pushed the unlatched door open. Milly remembered what Meryl said…she couldn't stay in this room any longer than she had to and that when she finished doing whatever it was that brought her in here, she had to leave immediately. 

Milly didn't understand why Meryl didn't want her to be in this room for long. Neither Vash nor Meryl would tell her anything about Mr. Knives, except that it wasn't good for her to be around him. If Milly didn't know any better, she'd think that Knives might be somehow dangerous. 

But how dangerous could he be? He's Vash's brother, after all! Meryl made it sound like she didn't want Milly to be near Knives when he awoke, but the tall girl couldn't figure out why. She had asked Meryl once about Knives when Vash wasn't present. Meryl just said that she didn't know anything about him either, but Milly could tell that she was lying.

She decided to forget about all that for the moment as she walked towards the bed that Knives Millions slept in. There was a small end table next to the bed, which is where Milly set the plate upon.

Milly looked down at the sleeping figure. Although Knives was Vash's twin brother, she couldn't help but think that they must be so very different. Knives's face was an example…while his brother's was cheerful and lively with large, observant eyes like a child, Knives's was rugged and serious, as if he had become an old man at a young age. 

She watched as the man's bare, muscled chest slowly rose and fell; his mouth quivered only a tiny bit from the ragged breathing, as if even in sleep Knives would show no weakness. Milly leaned down and pulled the blanket over the man's chest.

_I guess he won't we getting up today, _Milly thought. Despite this and because of her sometimes overly thoughtful nature, she decided to leave the plate of food, just in case the man woke up.

Milly walked back to the door, and as she did so she stared at the strange outfit that hung by a coat hook next to the door. The form-fitting suit was Knives's and, despite the blood and the holes in it, it still interested Milly. She was curious where Knives got such a weird looking outfit.

Milly opened the door to leave, but froze still. She suddenly had this frightened sense tingling her spine. She slowly turned and there, in bed, sitting upright was Knives Millions. He stared at her with hate, his face showing only a part of his anger that flowed inside of himself.

"He-hello, Mr. Knives," Milly managed to push out her throat. Why was she so scared? He was just looking at her…Milly didn't understand this. She rarely gets this frightened by people, especially wounded ones sitting in a bed. "There's some food on the table for you…"

Knives didn't speak. He didn't move. He only sat there glowering at the woman.

"Um…bye!" Milly said quickly. She leapt through the doorway and quickly shut the door. She leaned against it and took a deep breath.

_So that's why Meryl didn't want me in there…_

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

Even after she left the room, I glared at the doorway that she had gone through. My head throbbed from a deep headache and I couldn't remember where I was…much less why I was here.

I tried to clear my head by breathing in and out, but this only sent pain through my chest. I looked down with my eyes, and saw a light pink area of newly grown and healed skin at the top of my chest…I instantly recognized it as a healed-over bullet wound and lightly rubbed it with my fingers, which sent more pain coursing through my nerves…pain that triggered memories through my headache.

_Vash did this to me…_

That female human that had been in here…she was one of the humans that followed Vash in his travels. 

I looked around the room. This must be where they were staying. Along with the other woman and the priest.

No, wait…the priest was killed by Legato, I remember now. But death was too gentle a punishment for that damn man! Him and his cross punisher…

The memory of the last scene in my battle with Vash echoed through my head. Vash laying atop the ground and both my upper limbs mutated into the giant angel arms. Vash pulled the cross punisher out from the sand and shattered my glorious weapons…

If only I had remembered that Vash had brought that weapon with him! I had thought I had my brother beat and that had blinded my judgment.

Damn that priest to Hell!

If Nicholas D. Wolfwood had followed my orders, or at least that incompetent Chapel had had better control over his protégé, I would have had no need to worry about such things as losing! I should never have relied that heavily on those damn spiders! My expectations of Chapel the Evergreen and his apprentice were much too high, and because of that, they naturally failed.

Now I was stuck here with these spiders. This was worse than death! Now, everywhere I look, whenever I see a human, I will be remembered of that loss! Not only that, but my brethren are still in captivity…and now I'm not sure if that will ever change.

"DAMN IT!" I slammed my fist into the nearby wall over and over, making a deep impression in it. I did not stop until I got a hold of my rage; I had to calm my breathing down until the fiery stinging in my torso subsided. 

I stared at my now bruised hand and was about to wipe the blood and plaster onto my suit when I realized I was not wearing it. The gall those two women must have to undress me like this!

I was not in the entirely nude, though. I wore some sort of thin shorts. They were obviously my brother's due to the fact that they were red. Why does Vash obsess over that color?

I shook my head, dismissing the thoughts of my overly sentimental and ignorant brother, and wiped the plaster and small trickle of blood onto the drapes of the window near the bed. My suit was hanging next to the door on the other side of the room…no problem. I would just get up and grab it. I quickly learned there was a slight problem in my simple plan.

My legs would not move.

I stared at both of the limbs which were still wrapped in bandages. They must not have been as recovered as my chest or arms were. _No matter. They just need a little coercion, _I thought to myself. I pushed up with my arms, ready to slide out of the bed, when I suddenly realized that that also was not a good idea.

My arms buckled from the weight and I fell against the bed, panting. It felt like the room was spinning.

Obviously my arms weren't, at the moment, up to the task of supporting my body's weight, even though they appeared to be healed. My brain was also still recovering, and it didn't seem to enjoy any quick movements at that moment.

I stared at the ceiling while grinding my teeth together. I had no choice. I'd have to wait here with Vash and these humans until I could take care of myself. I sighed. It was going to be difficult to refrain myself from killing one of those women.

My stomach suddenly let out a loud sound and sent pain through my gut. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the plate of food.

No…I wouldn't…I COULDN'T stoop that low to eat food prepared by a spider.

My stomach apparently disagreed with that logic, since it let out another bellow and a second shot of pain. It must have been weeks since I had eaten last.

I slowly sat up in bed and grabbed the plate of food; my hand shook from the light weight of the plate and its contents. I shouldn't have attacked the wall like I had. I used too much energy by doing so.

"Vash could have gone a little-less trigger happy…five wounds was a bit much, that dumbass," I said to myself as I set the plate onto my lap. I smelled the sandwiches, which caused myself to gag and my eye to twitch.

"Salmon? Ugh…" Now I was sure that that woman knew Vash. The fishy smell from the uncooked meat made me almost reconsider not eating it.

Once again, though, my stomach thought otherwise and let me know with a sharp burst of pain, making me wince. I disgustedly shoved the sandwiches into my mouth and chewed. When I quickly finished them, I looked to the small plastic packages which contained some squishy brown substance.

I opened one and sniffed it. It definitely smelled better than the sandwiches. In fact, it smelled almost…familiar. It was probably some sort of poison, but I really wanted to get the fish taste out of my mouth as quickly as possible.

I took in hand the spoon that woman had left for me and scooped some of the lightly jiggling brown substance. I closed my eyes as I brought the spoon to my mouth in expectation that it would be some sort of disgusting medicine or toxin.

My eyes shot open as I tasted the first spoonful.

_Chocolate…pudding? _I thought to myself. I surprised myself with the thought. It jumped into my mind before I had even the slightest bit of time to think. I had tasted something exactly like this before…many, many years ago back within the confines of the Seeds ship.

Back then, I had been able to enjoy things such as this all the time; it had been a sort of temporary escape from the humans. I stuffed more pudding into my mouth until I suddenly noticed there was none left. I placed the plate and empty packs of pudding back onto the table.

The taste of the pudding had released old memories that I had hoped were long gone. Some were fond memories, though, and I savored them for the brief moments that they stayed in my mind's eye. Images of Vash and myself, still young and long before the fall of the ships, sitting in the recreation room filled my skull. They were very pleasant, since they were from before Vash and I had split paths that day over the death of the spider.

But many of the memories of that doomed ship filled me with hate and fear. Phantom pains from bruises long healed shot through my mind as I remembered the constant beatings Steven had given me. That man had been the one that reinforced my beliefs of the human race; he had been the one, in his own ignorant way, that allowed me to come to the now obvious conclusion that humans were nothing more than carnivorous spiders willing to do anything to help them forget their own animal-like fear.

I laid down in the bed with my head atop the soft pillow and slowly I fell back into the soothing darkness of sleep.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"I hurts!! Get it off, Meryl!!" Vash whined as he shook has arm. At one end of the arm wash Vash the Stampede, feared killer and destroyer of two cities, almost to the point of tears, and at the other end was the black cat, latched onto his hand.

Meryl tugged the cat's body in a failing attempt to dislodge the animal, "This is what you get for petting a stray cat when your hands smell like old fish!" Meryl grabbed one of the glasses of water she had brought out for them and dumped it onto the cat. The black stray let go and dropped onto the ground.

Vash kissed his bleeding hand, "Thanks, Meryl!" He sat back onto his chair, barely able to keep his eyes open. He soon realized after he had returned to Meryl and Milly that he was severely wounded, not only from bruises and bullet holes, but from his angel arms. The power it had taken to fire all that energy had taken a toll and Vash and Knives's plant bodies now had to recover all that energy through sleep, which was a slow and meticulous process.

Knives was even worse off since he had used more energy when he formed both of his limbs into angel arms and, although Vash prevented him from firing through the use of Wolfwood's cross punisher, the energy Knives had charged into his weapons was lost into the air. This was just as wasteful in energy and as taxing on his body as if he had actually fired them. 

"Don't thank me! Just don't do something stupid like that again!" Meryl yelled. The black cat, soaking wet, shook herself, sending a heavy mist of water onto Meryl and Vash's bodies. "Vash, look at my clothes! They're soaking wet!' Meryl yelled at the man.

Vash yawned. He had been awake almost all day, and since he was still lacking his normal child-with-a-sugar-rush level of energy, it was beginning to tire him out. "That's not my fault!"

Before Meryl could choose whether to yell at the man again, slap him in the head, or to throw the stray cat onto him, Milly burst out of the front door and onto the porch, almost losing her balance in the process. "Meryl! Mr. Vash!"

"What's wrong, Milly?" Meryl asked worriedly.

"Kn-knives is awake!" Milly looked to Vash to check his reaction. Vash's face suddenly became grim and serious. "What do you want to do now, Mr. Vash?"

"I don't know…I suppose we can only wait and hope he gets a hold of himself. No doubt he's going to be upset…" Vash said with a sigh.

"Well," Meryl said, "Nothing has exploded yet, so that's a good sign."

Vash didn't react. He just sat there, wondering what he should do, now that he had Knives with him.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

_Two Weeks Later, In Jeneorarock_

The town of Jeneorarock had been quite prosperous in the many months since the deaths of the Roderick Thieves. They had plagued Jeneorarock and the surrounding cities for many years and now that they were gone, killed off by the terrifying blue-haired man in the white coat.

Now that the Roderick Thieves were done away with, the town of Jeneorarock was able to earn many things that other cities and towns on Gunsmoke took for granted. One of these 'luxuries' was the new sheriff named Forgo Madison and his partner, Aaron Richards.

They had been the first citizens to run for the position of sheriff of Jeneorarock in the last seven years since the Roderick Thieves first entered and killed off all forms of law enforcement. The townspeople were so grateful for their offer that both had been hired.

Forgo looked at the paper in his hand and scoffed, "This is a piece of crap! Look at him," he pointed to the small wanted poster in his hand, "do you think Vash the Stampede would look like some smiling idiot?" The picture on the wanted poster was that of Vash the Stampede. Or at least it was supposed to be, but Aaron was still skeptical that someone managed to get a good enough look at the Humanoid Typhoon to draw such a highly detailed picture.

"The Feds and Bernardelli both sent us thirty sheets," Forgo said, "And I doubt they would take the time and money to spread those across Gunsmoke if they didn't get it from a fairly reliable source."

"I still think the Humanoid Typhoon would look more like a huge man instead of some happy blonde dude with sparkly kiddy eyes."

"Shut up, Aaron," Forgo said and he leaned back in his chair.

Aaron scowled at his boss then, while mumbling a few things to himself, glanced out the window of the building. The sheriff's office was set towards the edge of town, near the open desert, so Aaron was shocked to see a lone figure walking towards the city. "What in the world? Hey, Forgo, check this out."

The other man looked out the window, "What kind of guy would…" he squinted his eyes more to get a better look, "It's a kid!"

"What?" Aaron asked, but he could also quickly make out the shape of a young, teenage sized child. Both men rushed outside and towards the child, but stopped in confusion as soon as they got a good look at the visitor.

He looked to be thirteen or fourteen years old, and was apparently a boy, despite the waist-length bleach-blonde hair that fell along his temple and onto his shoulders. He walked straight up, as if he had been raised as royalty, and his piercing blue eyes scanned the area, seeming to take in any information that presented itself to the him. His mouth was small and thin, absolutely expressionless.

Despite the young lad's physical appearance, the strangest aspect of him was his clothing. He wore some sort of strange jumpsuit that clung to his body, which was, for his age, quite wiry and contained taut muscles. The limbs were mostly white, but the torso and waist were mostly red.

Over all, Forgo and Aaron would have guessed, if they hadn't known better, that it resembled the suit that the ancient people that had originally created the plant's wore.

Aaron looked at Forgo skeptically before walking up to the boy. "Hello there!" he said cheerfully. The boy stopped in front of him and stared at each him, and then Aaron, before starting his walk again. 

"Whoa, there, Sonny!" Forgo said and stepped in the child's path.

The boy looked at him from head to toe and, if Forgo's eyes weren't deceiving him, sneered at the adult, "You are not my father; do not call me 'Sonny'."

Forgo looked over the boy's head towards Aaron. Aaron shrugged. "Well, then," Forgo asked the boy, "could you tell us who your father is?"

"No."

Forgo jumped a little at this and looked around just to make sure that there weren't any people that could be this boy's parents, but there was nobody in sight. 

"Would you at least mind telling us your name?" Aaron asked as he walked around the boy to stand next to Forgo.

The boy thought for a second. Whether he was trying to remember his name, or figuring out whether he should tell it, neither man could guess. "My name…" the boy said but seemed to trail off. He quickly stood even straighter than before, "I am Cherub."

"Well that's a cute name," Forgo said. Aaron thought to himself, _this kid is a freak. What the Hell kind of name is 'Cherub'? Sounds like the name of a fruit or a plant or something…_

"See? That wasn't so hard, Cherub!" Forgo placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.

Cherub seemed to change in an instant, going from calm watchfulness to writhing in anger. "Get your hand off of me!" The boy's hands clenched into fists.

Forgo just smiled. He figured this little boy hadn't seen many people in a long time, which he thought accounted for the sudden hostility. "Oh, don't be like that!" He moved his hand and rubbed the top of Cherub's head.

The boy, within the time it took one's eye to blink, reached up with one of his small hands and grabbed Forgo's wrist. He brought his other hand up and placed it onto the man's elbow and pushed, with surprising strength, inwards with both his hands.

The sound of Forgo's joint shattering echoed through the town and the man doubled over in pain. He held his twisted arm with his other hand. Aaron's eyes grew wide in shock as he reached for his gun. He pointed it at Cherub, but the boy brought his leg into the air and knocked the man's gun towards the sky.

Cherub turned to Forgo, who was on the ground in tears screaming as blood poured from his arm. The man's bone was visible from the wound. Cherub pointed a gun at the man.

_How…how did he get Forgo's gun without me seeing?! _Aaron thought to himself, unable to move as all this happened faster than he could think, _No one could be THAT fast, much less a kid!_

Cherub pulled the trigger, sending a bullet into Forgo's skull, quickly silencing the man's screams of anguish. The boy casually reached out with his other hand and Aaron's gun, descending from the sky, landing right into it. Cherub spun and pointed both weapons at the man frozen in fear at the sight of this small boy. 

"I told him not to touch me."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A/N: Hehehe…well, there he is!! My own special original character! This chapter was pretty long, and I thank all of you who managed to get through it all without falling asleep! So, I would appreciate it if you all would review now!!__


	4. Chapter Three: LOST SON

A/N: Well, I am very happy, once again, that so many people reviewed this story. I would like to thank all you reviewers! As every author here knows, there's no better feeling than the one you get from good reviews! I love that warm, special feeling…although a part of that might have something to do with some bad chili I ate a few hours ago…

One more thing…A little subject should be addressed before this story goes any further…this is NOT a Knives/Millie story. Although Knives is one of my favorite characters and I love Millie, I'm not writing this to be a Millie/Knives story. Ok? I didn't want to scare people away when they began to think that's where this was going.

Oh, well, time to get to the story!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Along Came A Spider 

Chapter Three: LOST SON

Another two weeks have gone by. Day in and day out, all I can do is lay here and think about what I could have done to prevent this. It's like a nightmare that doesn't go away once I wake up; I know I should have won that fight, but due to the meddling and insubordinate acts of one Nicholas D. Wolfwood, I had lost.

As I shook my head to lose those thoughts into the back of my mind, I slid myself into a sitting position with my back against the wall of the bedroom. From here I could see a clear view of the town outside.

Amongst the buildings and through the streets that made up this infernal hive, the spiders scuttled about their meaningless, short, pathetic lives. They were all ignorant of the danger that was so close to them. I sighed, _So close, but yet so far…_

The humans—men, women, children—none of them knew that someone such as myself existed in this building. As the wandered by this home, they all shot looks of fear towards it, but I knew that they were not directed at me, the human exterminator. Those looks were meant for my dear brother, the one and only Vash the Stampede.

The irony of it all!

Laughter shook my healed chest. They feared Vash so much, and yet, they know nothing! The man who sought to save them from death was the same man that they feared would bring them that same fate. But none of them knew that, a floor above the Humanoid Typhoon, was the real threat to their existence. And that threat was…

Me.

I looked from the wandering people to the suns high in the sky. From their position I could tell that it was almost noon, and noon meant that _she _would be coming.

I would have sworn that after our first meeting that woman would have been to frightened to take a step back onto this floor, much less this very room. I remembered her name, Millie Thompson, from Legato's reports and it was quite easy to fit the physical description to that woman. 

Everyday that I have been awake, and undoubtedly each day that I slept, that woman came in at noon to place a meal atop the table in this room. Many times I would fake sleep, while I was awake, in the hopes that she would leave quickly without question, but instead it lead her to do such things as check a wound here or there, or to move the bed sheets in some way.

Over the past four days, I had given up and decided it best to lay awake as to scare the insurance girl away. She stopped from checking my wounds and anything else that would bring her closer to me than she had to be, but yet, that woman still came to this room, everyday at noon.

She was brave, I had to give her that. Braver than most humans, especially ones that had come into contact with me. One thing still bothered me, though.

Why was she doing all this? Why bring me, Millions Knives, food and care for my wounds in the way she has? Has Vash not told her the whole truth, about what has happened between us and what I have done?

No, he must not have. That is so like him, to spare someone horrible knowledge such as that. That, though, still did not explain the seemingly caring behavior of the human. I shook my head, _no…there must be a logical reason she is doing this…humans care not for the fate of others. _Vash must be forcing her to do this for him. It was a possibility that he couldn't bear to look at me at this moment, but I still was not sure if that was the answer.

I had to get out of here…I had to leave! My eyes locked onto my suit still hanging across the room. _Maybe now that I felt stronger, I could…_I slowly slid my tired legs off of the bed. I had tried moving them at least once a day, but up till yesterday, they had not listened to my commands.

My legs shook like pudding and my vision twirled before me as I stood. I pushed the sickening feeling out of my body. I had to get to my clothes! It was a long shot, but…maybe…just maybe, _it _was still in one of the pockets.

My leg rose as I took my first step, but once I laid it back onto the floor, by leg buckled and soon after, found myself embracing the floor. I let out a curse and looked back to the suit. Being that close, closer to it than I had been for weeks, I couldn't give up.

I reached out with my arms and grabbed a hold of the floor boards, and I began to pull myself across the room. After a few agonizing, hour-long minutes, I made it to the outfit. I reached up and gripped one of the legs. I pulled it down, tearing a piece off as I ripped it off of the coat hook.

My hands instantly reached into the pockets, but much to my dismay, I found…nothing. It was should not have been surprising, but yet I couldn't help but to feel, once again, defeated.

Even Vash wasn't that dumb or trusting as to leave my revolver in the room I resided in. I did not know what I would have done if the weapon was there, but maybe…maybe I just wanted it for insurance, just to be sure that if these human women decided to turn on me, I would have a chance to fight back even in this weakened state.

That gun was my last chance I had escape this place…it was my last hope to eradicate the humans. _No…it isn't my last hope…there is one other I could wish for, but…_

I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts. I could not weaken myself with optimism, not at a time or place such as this.

I shoved my face into the crumpled ball that was my body suit. "DAMN IT!!" the scream was muffled by the clothing. As anger seethed out of me, my eyes closed and I slowly fell back to sleep.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

With plate in hand and a smile on her face, Millie strolled towards Knives's room as she did everyday at this time. Pushing open the door to the room, Millie gasped at the sight she saw.

Knives laid on the floor next to the door, his face smothered in his clothes that he tore from the wall. Quickly setting the plate on the floor, Millie fell to her knees. She moved her hand to Knives, but he stirred a little before she could touch him.

A relieved sigh escaped Millie's lips, "Good, you're still breathing." She shook her head at the sleeping figure, "Silly, you could have asked for your clothes if you wanted them so much!"

After placing the plate onto the table, Millie bent back down and slid her arms under the almost nude body of Millions Knives. Using all her strength—the strength that, for a reason unknown to her, always surprised people—lifted the man. 

Making it to the bed without Knives awakening, Milly placed him onto it and covered him with the sheets. She was very, very thankful that the man had not woken up. If he had, she didn't want to know what the normally hate-filled man would have done.

As she walked to leave, Millie's foot caught on something. The tall woman looked down and there, on her foot, was the crumpled pile of cloth that was Knives's suit. She picked it up and shook it so that she could get a good look at it.

It had multiple holes and around them were blood stains. A smile crossed her face as Millie got an idea into her usually idea-free mind. "It'll be a surprise for him! After all, he won't get friendlier if we don't show some hospitality," Millie said to herself. 

Holding the clothing in her arms, she left to prepare her surprise for Millions Knives.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Aaron walked into the large building before him, trying to prevent himself from running off in fear. He turned to the figure that was following him and swallowed past the lump in his throat. Standing there in the mid-day light was Cherub, the dangerous child that had entered Jeneorarock only a day before.

The boy had gone crazy after Aaron's partner, Forgo, had touched him in an act of greeting and killed the man. As Cherub stood before him with each sheriff's weapons aimed at Aaron, the man had been expecting the worse. Out of sheer luck, or an act of cruelty by a higher power, Cherub, his anger spent on Forgo, spared Aaron. Now, Aaron was at the frightening teenager's beckon call.

Many villagers were drawn out of their homes by the sound of a gun shot, and Cherub, whether he meant it as a way to strike fear into the populace or just for a little target practice, killed a large group them.

When Cherub struck at the innocent people with the weapons of the town's law enforcers, he moved like the wind and had the carefully planned accuracy that rivaled that of a surgeon. Due to this, Aaron gave up counting those the fifteen year-old felled at about twenty victims.

The long-haired blonde boy strolled into the building, his eyes going over each area of the room and his mouth sealed into a thin line. "Where have you brought me?" Cherub said once he had observed everything that could be seen.

Aaron took a deep breath to ensure that he did not say or do something to aggravate the boy, "I-it's a church," he managed, "it's the Church of Jeneorarock. I-I figured you would need a place to rest during—"

"I do not need rest," Cherub interrupted, "I am not tired."

Aaron closed his eyes, thinking that he had finally did something wrong, but instead of a sudden death, he heard, "Why do you not answer me? Tell me what this place is!"

Eyes suddenly open, Aaron could see Cherub still standing before him. Although his expression did not seem to change, the man could feel the boy was growing impatient. "Well, um…I don't quite know how to explain…"

"That is not a surprise…" Cherub shook his head and glared at his captive, "How useless." He walked towards Aaron and the man stiffened and held his breath, but Cherub continued past, walking to a large frieze on the far wall of the church. Aaron let his breath out and allowed himself to relax a tiny bit. 

The man joined Cherub, who happened to be staring intently at the carving. "What is this?" the boy gestured towards the frieze.

The carving was of a figure shown with his arms wide as his long hair flowing in what must have been wind and his elegant wings spread behind him, encompassing much of the wall. "It-it is an angel…"

"Angel?" Cherub repeated. His eyes seemed to glow bright and what appeared to be a the tiny smile crossed his face. He placed his hand on the bottom of the carving and seemed to lose his mind in it, as if the angel resembled a family member of loved one that he had not seen in a long time.

Aaron looked at the boy strangely and then glanced to the picture of the angel. He was shocked to think that he saw some similarities between the Cherub and the picture. The chiseled features, the hair…

"It is quite obvious that there is nothing here for me. I have found nothing about my father here," Cherub said as he looked to Aaron. The boy's face was once again back to its inquisitive, yet bored status, "I will be leaving this pitiful little town soon."

Aaron felt glee in his heart. Finally this little demon would leave him and the town forever and he would be someone else's problem! A smile crept onto his face as he realized he would survive this ordeal.

"You and the others have been somewhat helpful, but…" as Cherub said this, Aaron's hopes sunk, "That usefulness has run out, and you are nothing more than garbage now, just like all the rest.

"And garbage, as anyone knows, must be disposed of." Cherub, once again faster than Aaron's eye could track, shot the man in the chest with a gun he pulled out of his pocket. Falling to the ground with his hand clutching the lethal wound, Aaron stared into the eyes of the boy who looked down upon him as a superior would a subordinate.

As he slowly slipped into darkness, one thought rung in Aaron's mind. _Those eyes…I've seen them before…on the wanted poster of Vash the Stampede…_

As Cherub left to clean up the rest of the useless garbage, a snicker escaped his throat and a blissful smile of pride grew on his young, handsome face. He brandished his weapons and exited the church, walking proudly down the steps towards the rest of Jeneorarock. The thought that elicited so much glee from him was a simple one that would make any child joyful and confident:

_Father would be proud of me._

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A/N: Yes, Cherub is a nice little boy, ain't he? Well…now that you have read it, what do you do now?

You: REVIEW!!

Hustino: –gives you cookie- smart little reader!


	5. Chapter Four: GREAT POISON

A/N: It seems that a few people have come up with ideas concerning Cherub and his father, but rest assured, it's going be quite a bit different than any of you think in future chapters.

* * *

  
Along Came A Spider 

Chapter Four: GREAT POISON

The city of Inepril, in the many months that the city's plants have been worked on, had become much more thriving. People were no longer starving and much of the city that had once been buried in sand was restored to its original state. This was all thanks to a certain Humanoid typhoon.

Despite the destruction of Augusta, Vash the Stampede was still considered a local hero by many locals. Some others began to question his actions for saving their city, thinking that he had defeated the Nebraska Family and prevented the plant from melting down for his own benefit, instead of doing it out of generosity.

Whether the $$60,000,000 man saved the city for his own purposes or for the welfare of its citizens, they did not know. Many did not care; these of which were the children of Inepril who still believed that Vash the Stampede, the destroyer of July and Augusta, was a hero for what he had done and risked for them.

Tonis, who had become a small hero himself for befriending the Typhoon himself, was near the outskirts of town with his friends, reenacting the fight between the Nebraska Family and Vash the Stampede as best they could.

That was when a teenage blonde boy visitor came into the city.

The children rushed up to Cherub, excited to meet the strange visitor. "Hi, miss!" Tonis yelled.

Cherub shot the boy a glare, "I am not female! I am a male!"

"Oh, sorry," Tonis scratched his head in confusion, "Then why do you have such long hair?'

"Why do you seem to be lacking gray matter?" Cherub shot back.

A boy in the back of the group asked, "What's gray matter? Is it a kind of food?!" Not giving a verbal reaction to this, Cherub only stared at the children and shook his head in pity.

"What's your name, kid? You look kinda like I've seen you before…" Tonis asked. He was getting impatient with Cherub and, consequently, was also losing respect for the visitor.

"My name is of no importance to you…and do not call me 'kid', I am larger than you, so it would be in your best interest to naturally show me respect," Cherub stared down his nose at the group before him and scowled.

A girl stuck her tongue out, "You're no fun! You're just a big jerk!" Giving only a short look at the girl, Cherub continued his walk to enter the streets of Inepril.

One of the boys grabbed onto Cherub's arm, "Hey, we're not lettin' you go 'til you tell us your name!"

Writhing in anger at the contact, Cherub glared at the boy. His hand reached into a pocket to pull out the one weapon that still contained ammo left over from Jeneorarock. He would kill them all! How dare they touch him?!

"I know who you look like!" Tonis shouted out, "You look just like Vash!"

Turning with a look of surprise towards Tonis, Cherub shook out of the grip the other child had on him. "You know of Vash?!" He stepped forward so that he stood directly in front of Tonis.

Being only as high as the teen's abdomen, Tonis had to look up to see Cherub's face, "Well…yeah. Everybody knows about Vash the Stampede! Sheesh…how long have you been around?" Some of the other children giggled at this.

Ignoring the insult at his intelligence, Cherub grabbed onto Tonis's shirt with one hand and lifted the boy so that they were, literally, eye-to-eye with each other. "You spoke as if you had met Vash the Stampede! Tell me, is he here?" He brought his face close to the little boy's as he yelled this, intensifying the fear Cherub shot into the small boy, "Tell me!

_"Is Vash the Stampede in Inepril?!_"

Jaw wavering at being put through this interrogation, Tonis struggled to regain his bearings. "N-no…he-he isn't! we met him a long time ago when he saved all our lives…" his eyes began to water, "b-but we haven't seen him since! I'm telling the truth!"

"He saved your lives?" Cherub seemed more disappointed at this information than he was angry. Tonis nodded his head quickly. "Pathetic…" Cherub threw the boy onto the ground and made an about-face, walking past the other children who went to help the crying Tonis while shooting glares at the visitor.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Standing before the entrance to Inepril City's main plant, Cherub recalled the information he had gotten from people after leaving the sniveling brats. They had told him that their plant had once become close to useless and Vash, after earning a large sum of money, gave them the funds to fix the plant. He helped the very people that sought to kill him for his own bounty.

That was not what intrigued Cherub the most; he had learned that after technicians and engineers came to fix the plant, there was a risk of a meltdown and, once again, Vash came to their rescue. No one knew what he did to the plant. They didn't even know why the plant had been acting like that, but Cherub knew.

_She was only a little tired…_

Inepril was now a haven for Vash the Stampede, and he would undoubtedly return here in the future. All this new information was priceless to Cherub, and at that very moment he formulated a plan to ensure that, if Vash ever returned here, he would find what he had helped fix.

Death…drought…starvation…and a dying plant. Cherub hated what he was about to do, but he had no choice. After a few quick moments of hacking into the ship's computer, Cherub was able to unlock the entrance. He wandered through the maze that was the ship until he came to the room he was searching for, the room that Vash the Stampede himself had used to heal the plant and prevent the meltdown. It was filled with hundreds of pipes and the ceiling was littered with holes that let through an ominous light from the plant.

Using his mind, Cherub reached out to the being that resided in the structure, his thoughts flowing into the mind of the plant. Using reassuring thoughts, he ordered the creature to open up to him. The ceiling opened up and a cascade of rainbow energy appeared above him. Standing atop the pedestal-like projection in the center of the room, Cherub closed his eyes, focusing his mind into the plant. Poles rose from the floor, surrounding Cherub.

_"I am sorry for this," _Cherub called out with his mind. He reached out and grabbed onto a pair of the poles, his eyes shooting open as he released energy from his body into them. It followed up the path of the metal and his energy mixed with that of the plant. The screams of the plant dozens of yars above echoed through Cherub's head.

"This will be for the greater good…you will see…" 

* * *

  


Elizabeth, the chief of the plant engineers, walked towards Inepril's plant. Lately she had given up on her revealing dress that had been her mainstay in her apparel and was now wearing the normal gray outfit of the other engineers. Although she could have left Inepril many months ago after fixing the plant, she decided to stay instead. She didn't quite know why she wanted to. Maybe the fact that she had no actual home and her guilt for almost allowing a complete meltdown of the plant had something to do with it?

As she went to open the door to the plant, Elizabeth noticed that someone had already entered the code to unlock it, but had forgotten to secure it afterwards. Realizing that someone would have forgotten something that important in only an emergency, she rushed to the main control room of the plant.

Other engineers were rushing around frantically as she entered. "Germane!" Elizabeth called out to the secondary-chief engineer. The small man rushed up to her. "What is going on?!"

"Chief," the man began, "It seems that there is something wrong with one of the plants!"

"I can see that!" Her normally gentle face turned to a scowl that she directed towards the shaken man, "Be a little more specific!"

"Well, plant number three seems to be acting strangely. Its production has dropped to zero!"

"Zero?!" Elizabeth gasped. "Is it dead?"

The man shook his head quickly, "No…it's worse. For some reason it seems to be absorbing energy from the other plants!"

"What? That's impossible!" Instead of letting Germane finish, Elizabeth rushed to the control panel, and there was proof to what the man said. For some reason the plant, instead of producing energy, air, water, and everything else it was supposed to, was eating away at the other plants, absorbing their energy as if the it had become some sort of cannibalistic leech.

"Shut it down!" She called out desperately.

"We've already tried that," Germane said as he joined the woman before the panel. "But for some reason it won't respond," he seemed as if he was about to have an emotional breakdown. "I don't know what else we can do…if the plant keeps this up, it'll kill all the others in a matter of days!"

Steeped in thought, Elizabeth gave her desperate answer, "Shut all the plants down."

Mouth gaping, Germane stood in shock, "But if we do that…the city was in bad enough shape when only a third of its plants were down!"

"Do it! NOW!" Elizabeth yelled. She knew the consequences, but with any luck the city would be able to survive without the plants until she and the others found out what had turned the plant against the others.

Hopefully the city wouldn't wither away and die during that time.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

I was getting quite annoyed. It was a day like any other; I would wake up, languish about my loss to Vash, then, once I grew bored of that, I wallowed in my hatred of the spiders. After that, the tall human woman would bring me my food.

Except this time she wouldn't leave!

I brought the spoonful of soup to my lips and, as I did with each other one, sniffed it to ensure that there was not some sort of poison in it, and half-heartedly swallowed the concoction. I had to admit that it was not entirely displeasing, despite the fact it had been prepared by, not one, but two spiders.

Without turning my head, I glanced at the woman out of the corner of my eye. She stood there smiling as if she somehow couldn't tell that I wished her gone…or better yet, dead. She was also holding a bag, the contents of which I had not a clue…not that I really gave a damn.

"How do you like it, Mr. Millions?" the cheerfulness of her voice made my skin crawl. "It's a recipe from Meryl's family and I know she'd be happy to hear if you are enjoying it."

Answering through clenched teeth, I spoke as unthreateningly as possible, "Yes, it is fairly good…even considering where it came from and who made it."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" her smile seemed to grow bigger. The subtle insult I made obviously went over her head; I had met some dense humans in my time, but this one was air-headed to a point that was almost amusing to observe, had it not been aggravating.

 I finished the meal, which also included more of the chocolate pudding that she brought every day. After I placed the plate and utensils onto the end-table, I hoped the human would leave, but instead she stood there. I pushed the plate a little to her direction, hoping that she would get the hint.

"I know you must be lonely up here all alone,' she said. Obviously my hint was a little faint for her to notice. "So, how about a game?"

I did not try to show my rising hatred for her for sole fact that I didn't want to slip and do something that would scare her away permanently. Not that I would feel remorse for scaring such simple creature…in fact I would find it amusing. I just didn't want Vash to be the one to bring me food. Just the thought of my sentimental, childish brother—the same one that defeated me—caring for me like a wounded animal made my stomach churn.

Hearing the likely 'love and peace' speeches was not a very tempting scenario, either.

Swallowing my pride, I spoke to the cheerfully vile creature before me, "What type of game would you have in mind?" It would have to be something simplistic for her to be able to be able to play it.

"Chess!" she piped up happily as she pulled out one of the contents of the bag, a long rectangular box.

_Chess?! _That was definitely a surprise…I would have figured that the game of checkers was beyond her comprehension. A slight smirk crossed my face. Finally a way to show one of these humans my great intelligence!

"I wouldn't mind at least one game." I watched her as she moved the table over to the bed, placed the plates onto the floor and slid the chair from the corner over to the table and sat in it. The human opened the box and pulled out the game board and pieces. As she put the game pieces onto the correct spaces, I was amused by the fact that she knew where they belonged.

I had played many games of chess before, all of which had been against Legato Bluesummers, and, as would be expected, I had been the victor each and every time. Of course, I knew this game would be no exception.

* * *

  


In the living room of the home Vash and the others shared, Meryl sat in a cushioned chair, trying to relax. This was quite difficult, since Vash was slamming his fist over and over into the radio Meryl had recently bought. The small piece of second-hand electronics had not been working correctly and Vash decided to take the problem into his own hands.

Once the scrambled noises flowing out of the machine turned into the recognizable overly-energetic voice of the New Oregon satellite's DJ, Vash relented his attack/repair.

Meryl let out a sigh and shook her head. There was no doubt in her mind that that man was an over-the-top, sniveling, good-for-nothing man…but yet, despite all that she couldn't help but feel-

"Ahh!" Meryl's thoughts were cut short as Vash let out a yelp. He was searching frantically, or at least that's what he seemed to be trying to do, since he was only standing and jumping around in circles.

"What in the world are you doing?" Meryl asked.

"My…my…" He seemed to be on the verge of tears as he rushed up to woman, "My donut is missing! It's the last one from that dozen you bought earlier!" As a kind of ritual, Meryl had began to buy the man a box of donuts from the local baker everyday after she got off her shift at one of the town's bars. Not even she knew why she started doing it…maybe the childishly happy look of pure surprise Vash managed to put on each time she gave him the pastries had something to do with?

"You mean, that donut?" she pointed past the worried man towards a corner of the room. The spot was occupied by the stray black cat that they, due to Millie's persistence and whining, had taken in. The feline was busy licking Vash's final donut all the while letting out a content purr.

Letting out a gasp, Vash jumped up and pointed his finger dramatically at the tiny creature. "Revenge!!" he rushed over and snatched up the donut, which in turn scared the cat out if her wits and she latched onto his arm. "My donut!" he shook his arm quickly trying to get the cat to release, but she stayed in place.

As she massaged her temples, Meryl began to think that keeping that useless animal was a bad idea…and she didn't mean the cat. On the inside though, she smiled. Despite what the woman would say and rant about, she really did enjoy Vash's crazy antics, although she would never admit it to him.

After the furious battle between Vash the Stampede and a small cat (a battle that he lost, in Meryl's opinion), the Humanoid Typhoon flumped down into his chair and munched happily on his snack, seemingly oblivious to the wounds he received. The cat strolled towards Meryl and jumped up to her. The animal curled into a ball in the lap of the surprised insurance agent.

Meryl watched the man across the room, trying to get the courage to ask him a question that had been growing in her since the morning after Wolfwood's death, when she had learned of Vash's past, about his role in the marooning of the human race on Gunsmoke, of Millions Knives, human-hater and twin bother to kind gunman.

That was when she learned of Rem Saverem.

"V-vash…can I ask you a question?" she didn't normally stumble over words when she spoke to people, but due to the subject matter of the question and her fear of the answer, the normally strong woman seemed to falter.

Vash answered with a full mouth, "Shy, ob dourse, Mewle!" Even though she could barely understand him, Meryl still got a slight shiver whenever that man spoke her name.

After taking a deep breath and taking a moment to pet the cat as she collected her feelings into a question, Meryl spoke, "Who is Rem? I mean, you told me a little about how Knives killed her, but…"

The look of slight surprise on Vash's face prevented her from finishing. He swallowed the donut and seemed to squirm in his seat, "Well…um…why do you want to know?" He seemed to be avoiding the question.

"I was a just curious about your…" it took all her effort to push out the next word, "_relationship_with her." Meryl bit her lip as she waited for Vash's reaction to that.

With his eyes wide and mouth slightly open, Vash let out a sigh. "Well…she took care of me and I…" he stared at Meryl as he spoke the rest, "…loved her." Meryl tried not to react as a lump suddenly grew in her throat. "She gave her life to save everyone on this planet. Despite what I said or did, she always seemed to care about me." Meryl's face seemed to grow sadder and drooped as he spoke the rest. "Rem was perfect. She was smart…beautiful, caring, generous.

"You remind me a lot of her, Meryl."

The small woman's face shot up. It took her few moments to get her voice, "Really? You think so?" Vash smiled and nodded. Meryl looked away, not because of any sadness, but this time to prevent Vash from seeing her flushed face. "Vash…I need to say someth—"

The woman was suddenly cut off as the DJ's voice from the radio filled the room. The voice was dripping with surprise and shock as he read off the current news of Gunsmoke, "Ladies and gentlemen! I am sorry to inform you all, but I happen to have some uncool news for you to hear! Now, bear with me, as I try to explain the crazy events that have been sweeping our dusty little ball of a world!"

Vash and Meryl listened in surprise as the man listed off a string of horrible events that included the massacre of multiple towns, one of which was Jeneorarock, along with the strange problems with one of Inepril City's plants that lead to a complete shut-down of the entire facility.

What shocked them the most was that, at the end, the man spoke the words that Meryl had been expecting and feared:

"Unproven rumors have been spreading that these horrible events were the direct cause of one 'Vash the Stampede'. As you may be familiar, that man is the one responsible for July and Augusta going bye-bye and the big—and I mean huge!—hole in the Fifth Moon!"

Meryl's eyes shot to Vash. The man seemed like he had just gotten a boot to the groin as he tried to contain his fear. "Don't worry Vash…" she began to console him, but the man interrupted before she could finish.

"Who…who could have done all that? I'm here, Knives is upstairs and the Gung-Ho Guns and Legato are preoccupied with being dead and everything…" He tried smiling at his somewhat silly comment, but failed. He stared at his open palms as if to find the answer in them. "I had really hoped that, once I got Knives, all the 'Humanoid Typhoon' business would calm down…"

Not knowing what to say, Meryl just stared at the poor man. She didn't know what to say…what could she say? "I better check on Millie!" she said quickly and jumped up and made it out of the room. She didn't know how to deal with Vash…she wanted to help him, but she had never been good at getting herself to help people with emotional problems.

 Swallowing the new lump that was in her throat, she walked away from the man who sat in a state of depression and deep reflection and towards the stairs to tell Millie of the news—and of possible move they may be forced to make if this continued as it had in ever other town.

* * *

  


My teeth were clenched to the point that my jaw was numb. _Damn it, Legato! _I screamed in me head over and over. That blue-haired yellow-eyed son of a…

_Damn it! _ I screamed silently, interrupting my own thoughts. All those times I played chess against him, he must have let me win on purpose…either that, or that telepath had simply sucked horribly at the game.

I glared across the table at the woman who smiled happily at me. Ten games out of ten…I had lost _ten _games out of_ten_!! How could this seemingly brainless human manage to beat me, a plant far superior to her, in a game of strategy and wits?!

Maybe she was smarter than she acted…maybe it was all a sick ruse to send people into a false sense of security. She was just like all the other humans, throwing away dignity to defeat and destroy her opponents by making them think wrongly of her. Her intelligence must be much higher than I initially expected…

"I like the knights the most!" the tall woman poked one of the knights and giggled, "They look like little horsies!"

Okay, so that had completely destroyed my theory.

Before I could finish my turn, a short woman with black hair rushed into the room. I recognized her as the other woman that must have been living here. Although I had never seen her that closely, I had watched her leave the house early in the morning to do whatever sickening human thing she did when in town.

Her eyes widened when she saw me, and I smiled inwardly at the reaction. "Oh, hello…um, Mr. Knives…I am Meryl Stryfe of the Bern—"

"I know who you are." It was obvious from the sudden surprise and fear that she was a little more knowledgeable of my history.

"Millie, could I see you for a moment?" the short human said to the other. The tall one smiled and, after waving good-bye, left the room. I took a deep breath, trying with all my might to refrain from pushing the door down, rushing outside and killing everything in a ten-mile radius.

It wasn't working too well.

To distract myself, I got up and walked to the bag the woman had left. My legs and other wounds were, by that time, basically healed to their original state, so it was not too difficult a task. Not that I would have had the energy to run marathon, but I was becoming more relieved each day with the healing my body was doing.

Reaching into the bag, I grabbed the only item that was left in there and pulled it out. My eyes widened as I unfolded the item. "What in the world…"

It was my suit, but with the bullets holes patched up and the blood bleached out. It was roughly back to its original state. As I quickly put it on, I couldn't help but wonder why that human would do this. Was it a way to send me into a false sense of—

_No, _I thought. I had already came to the conclusion that she was not capable of a ruse such as that. But, if that was not the case, then why did she do this? Was it out of pity or caring?

I shook my head. No…NO! Humans were not capable of showing true compassion for others. They were all out to protect themselves and they did everything for only their own benefit, and that was all. This woman was no exception…

Or…was she?

As I pondered this, I could hear the voices of a worried mob of people at the front door demanding to see Vash the Stampede.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A/N: Well, that was long. I never have a real clue as to how long these chapters will turn out to be. Well, it is time to review again! And if you do, you will get a complimentary cookie…as soon as I find a way to send solid objects through the internet.


	6. Chapter Five: THE LAST GUNG HO GUN

A/N: I'm glad so many people are interested in Cherub's origin. I'm not going to say one way or another whether anybody is right or not. Over the next three chapters all your questions will be answered…and I have a feeling that, no matter what type of theory you have of him, you'll still be surprised. ^_^

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

Along Came A Spider

Chapter Five: THE FINAL GUNG-HO GUN

I sat in the kitchen of my prison. It was fairly large, with a round table surrounded by four chairs; a long countertop ran the length of one of the walls and at the end were pantries and cupboards filled with whatever it was that these people eat, which I figured consisted mainly of pudding, donuts, salmon, and coffee. 

Vash, along with the two human women, were standing at the door being interrogated by the townspeople. Despite the fact that no one would tell me what was the problem (not that I gave a damn), it was apparent that the tolerance the humans in this little village had for Vash's presence was wearing thin, if it was not gone already. They were now ordering him to vacate their pitiful little town.

 There must have been something to trigger it, of course. Another catastrophe must have occurred and, naturally, my brother was the most obvious scapegoat. But what type of event could have occurred that would suddenly cause this change in the humans? It couldn't have been another town destroyed or massacred; I was here along with Vash, the only two beings capable of destruction on that scale, and Legato, along with the Gung-Ho Guns, were busy rotting.

Maybe there was another person or persons doing such things, but…

My eyes grew wide. _Could it be? Could he have somehow escaped and is now… _I shook the thoughts away. No, that idea was impossible. I couldn't jump to conclusions, especially ones so optimistic.

"But he hasn't left in weeks!" The black haired human pleaded to the mob outside the door, "there's no way he could possibly have done any of those things!"

"We're aware of that," the apparent leader of the mob said, "But we've been patient enough with _him_," he sent Vash a look that made my brother wince, "It's time that you and the rest left."

"But we have no where else to go…" the tall woman, on the verge of tears, spoke, "We've finally got a home and now you want us to leave?" From the look that was on her face, I almost had empathy for her. 'Almost' being the keyword.

The man seemed taken aback, but he quickly shook his head, "No, you're not going to guilt us into allowing you all to stay. We are forcing Vash the Stampede out. It's your choice whether you follow him or not."

The short woman opened her mouth to protest again, but Vash cut her off. "I'll leave," he spoke in a subdued tone, as if he desperately didn't want to leave, but knew staying was impossible.

After a few more minutes of speaking, the group of humans left Vash and the women to figure out what they were to do. They sat at the table with me, the tall one to my left and Vash to my right. The short one did her best to keep as much space between me and herself, which I felt quite proud of. 

Vash's face appeared to be weighted down with depression, and the black-haired human noticed this. "I don't understand!" She yelled, trying to either distract Vash from his sorrow at once again being driven away from a town for something he had not done, or to enrage him so that the sadness would wear off. "They even admitted that Vash couldn't have done it!"

"Are you really that stupid?" I said to the woman in straight-forward tone. "Even though they know he could not have done it—whatever 'it' is—there's an obvious reason why they don't want him here."

The woman was shocked that I spoke to her, and she appeared equally angry that I had insulted her; she made no attempt, despite the fear she had of me, to hide her contempt. _Maybe she's not a complete coward…these humans might deserve a little respect…but not much._

"These people do not want every bounty hunter three hundred iles from here blowing up this town in a poor attempt to get the bounty on Vash's head, along with any people that might have a personal connection to the deaths seeking vengeance or whatnot. Not to mention, they do not want to have to explain to the Feds why they're harboring Humanity's First Localized Disaster, or whatever the Hell they've been calling Vash nowadays."

From the humans' faces, I could tell that they agreed with me, despite how they felt. Vash stood from his seat, "I'm going to be going for a walk…" the short woman looked at him in shock, but he didn't react to it. "I'll be back in the morning."

"What the Hell do you mean, 'you'll be back in the morning'?!" the woman yelled. I was a bit surprised that she would speak to my brother this way, but, being the childish buffoon that Vash was, he smiled at her.

"I need to get a few things that I left laying around in the desert…I'll be here in the morning." Before the human could protest again, Vash slipped out the door. I couldn't guess what was so important for Vash to suddenly get the urge to search for, but it was probably of no matter to me.

After taking a few moments to scowl at the two humans, I left for my room. Vash was getting too trusting of me; I could have killed both of those humans by now. Or, did he somehow know that I would not do anything because I was waiting for the perfect moment to escape? _It would have taken thinking too deep for Vash's mind to come to that conclusion... but, then again, he has surprised me before._ Thoughts of our last fight flashed in my head as an example.

Sliding into my bed, I quickly fell asleep. Maybe in the morning, when Vash had returned and he, along with the humans, dragged me to wherever it was they were taking me, some light may be shed on what events had caused the sudden change in the villagers.

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

The next morning, I had found myself sitting in the run-down jeep that was, according to the short human, a good investment. I myself thought that it was worthy of a trash compactor, but humans have no standards. 

Vash had returned before the humans or I awoke. Whatever it was that he had searched for and found was now safely hidden in the trunk of the car; shortly after which the black-haired woman had discovered that the trunk was stuck and would not open. Vash had acted as though there was nothing more to it than it appeared, but from the way he acted (and from his poor skills as a liar) I knew that he done it; there was no doubt he had done it so that I couldn't get to whatever now rested in the trunk.

So far throughout my ordeal, I had been patient. I hadn't killed either of the humans. This was because I did not want to anger Vash quite yet, and because, even though they were humans, I did owe the large one a bit for the help she gave me in my healing process. Help which, according to Vash, she gave willingly. In fact, he said that she protested when Vash offered to do it instead.

As for the little one…despite the fact that her fear was amusing and the fact that she despised me, the way she worked and stuck to her goals (I gathered this from the fact that her typewriter had kept me awake late into the night) was a quality that few humans, including the Gung-Ho Guns, had and deserved at least a little respect, even from me. Also, the way Vash looked at her…he had always looked at all humans in a close-friend type of way, but when he looked at her, his face was completely different; it resembled the sense of ease and happiness that I had not seen in him since the death of Rem. I didn't know what I should make of that or what reaction I should have, but I thought it best to leave it alone at that time.

Despite all that, my seemingly endless supply of patience was wearing thin. Since the trunk, whether by mistake or on purpose, was sealed closed, Vash had tossed all the other luggage into the backseat…which was where I sat and, to put it simply, there was a LOT of luggage.

I squirmed in the small space allotted to me, pushing aside a suitcase to make more room for my leg that had fallen asleep. The two humans sat in the front, the black-haired one drove while the tall one sat in front of me in the passenger seat. Vash sat in the back with me. I sent a glare at him, but he smiled at me._ "What is the matter, Knives?" _Vash's voice echoed in my head.

_"You know damned well what the matter is!" _I shot into his mind._ "Why do you want to be with these humans if it's so much trouble?"_

_"Oh…they're not that much trouble…trust me, it's worth it." _His smile grew as he sent the words into my head. "_Besides…we've been through a lot. Meryl is much nicer than you'd think and Millie is…" _his face contorted as he tried to think of the proper wording, _"…alone, now."_

_"What do you mean, 'alone'? She has that tiny spider friend of hers and she has already told me of her disturbingly large family during that game of chess she dragged me into," _I ignored Vash's amusing laughter at the thought of me being beaten in a game of wits by a spider as seemingly simple-minded as she. "_How is it possible, much less important, for her to be 'alone'?" _What Vash was trying to explain to me didn't make any sense.

_"You…wouldn't understand. It's a different type of loneliness." _Vash's face visibly saddened. What in the world is he trying to explain to me? I looked at the tall girl's happy expression in the window. I wasn't a master of analyzing human expressions, but I was fairly sure that the huge, amused grin on her face wasn't a sign of loneliness.

I decided to move on, _"And as for the black-haired one? Of what importance is she to you?"_

After a few seconds of thought Vash shook his head, _"Again, Knives, you wouldn't understand. You need to have a certain something to understand why I am doing this."_

_"And that is?"_

_"…You need to have experience about how compassionate humans are."_

My mouth dropped open and I stared at Vash. I wasn't sure if my face was filled with more shock or more anger. _"How can you say that? I have lived for 130 years and I have yet to see a single example of compassion, love, generosity or even kindness in the human race."_

My brother let out a visible sigh, _"You say that you've lived for 130 years, but you haven't 'lived' a day of your life."_ Before I could comment on this, Vash noticed that the short human was staring at us in the rear-view mirror. To her, it must have seemed that we had been staring at each other for the past few minutes, only to make a strange expression on our faces every few moments. "Oh, um…" Vash made one of his idiotic smiles sprout over his face, "So, Meryl, are we going?"

The short woman nodded and her expression changed to something of understanding. Did she know what Vash and I had been doing just then? If she did, then that meant Vash had told her more about us than I originally thought… 

The woman started the vehicle and soon we were on our way out of the town. Vash had told me where we were first heading towards. The name of the city surprised me as it, as far as I knew or was concerned, had no importance any of us.

We were going to Jeneorarock.

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

As I limped into the city of Jeneorarock with Vash and the spiders before me, I felt as if a strange presence had been here…something that lurked at the edge of my consciousness. I felt as if I should have been able to recognize it immediately, buy yet, I had no clue as to what it was.

I, along with the humans, followed my brother into the city. He seemed to be looking for something, but I couldn't understand what could be important in this empty city.

Wait, empty city? Jeneorarock was one of the most populated cities in this region. Although it was small compared to Inepril or May, it should still be bustling with activity. I should have seen at least one native spider already. "Where are they, Vash?' I yelled out over the humans to my brother. 

Vash stopped and turned to me. The humans also stopped and I followed suit, albeit a little sooner so that the space between me and the humans was at a maximum so that I did not have to get closer to them than need be. "They're all dead," I could hear a tone of sadness in his voice.

I snorted, "Dead? And how exactly did a settlement this large get exterminated? It would take at least a hundred heavily armed humans—" the tall woman looked at me confused. She must have been wondering why I used the word 'human'; she still did not know that I was not of her kind, "—to do something on this scale."

"There are some beings able to do things like this by themselves," Even from the distance that separated us, I could tell that Vash was staring into my eyes, searching for truth, "the Gung-Ho Guns for example."

"You know as well as I do that they are all dead." It was a half-truth, but I did not want to get into the subject any deeper. My brother let out a sigh and he turned from me, continuing his search through the city, undoubtedly looking for evidence of whomever killed these spiders. _Good riddance, _I thought to myself as I followed him. Vash led the humans and I to the center of town, towards the gigantic mound of stone that rose into the air. 

Vash came to a sudden stop and he stared at the smooth wall of stone before him. The humans stared at the wall in shock, the black-haired one visibly gasped and covered her mouth. The other one stood in confusion at the wall. Despite the fact that I was curious as to what Vash had found, I did not increase my speed. I didn't want to show my brother or the humans my interest.

As I neared them, I could tell that the were looking at some sort of graffiti drawn on the stone, but it was not until the word came into focus that I understood. The sight caused me to go into a fit of laughter, for I had learned the identity of the killer, why they did this, and what that odd sensation that had been bugging me up to then was.

There before me, on the wall written in the blood of a human, was one word, and one word only.

'Knives'.

At the sight of my name written in the crimson liquid was what had shocked the other three into silence. But, for me, it was as if I had been given a gift, for I now knew that I had an ace up my sleeve, one that might very well help me in the extermination of the humans.

"Wha…" Vash tried to say, but he gagged on tears, "Why is this here!?" His mixture of anger and fear poured off of him like steam as he shoved his quivering finger into the direction of the graffiti. "WHY IS YOUR NAME HERE?!"

"My final demon has managed to escape into the world," I spoke with a tone of elation, "and he is now searching for me, all the while carrying out his master's work!" I let out another laugh.

Anger was the only emotion I could see in my brother's eyes. _"You said…you _told_ me that the Gung-Ho Guns were done with! They're all dead, along with your second-hand man! Who is doing this?" _Vash spoke into my mind, obviously still unwilling, for whatever reason, to allow the tall human to know that I am the master of the Gung-Ho Guns.

I let out another laugh. _"You really think that Legato Bluesummers was my second-in-command?_" I said into his consciousness. _"Ha! He was just another minor pawn just as the others were!"_

Vash seemed taken aback, although it could also have been fear that made him stumble for his words, _"Y-you mean…there is someone else out there…still loyal to you…that is stronger than Legato?"_

I laughed with both my real voice, and my mind, _"He is infinitely stronger than that human!" _As I turned to stare out towards the desert, I spoke with my true voice, "Out there…_out there_, wandering the desert is the final demon, the true Leader of the Gung-Ho Guns!"

Even I could not explain the joy I felt at knowing that I had one last weapon in this world to use, and not only that, but the most powerful one of all! He had somehow escaped from the sleep-like state that I had put him in for safe keeping, and now he, at that moment, was searching for me.

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

Knives and Vash had fallen asleep during the last few hours of their trip to Inepril City. While Knives slept soundly, his brother's snoring was getting on Meryl's nerves. She gritted her teeth together in an attempt to ignore the noise.

They, minus Knives, had decided that going to Inepril was the best course of action for two reasons. First, after Vash had privately explained to Meryl that it was a Gung-Ho Gun causing the damage, she agreed, albeit unenthusiastically, that it was their duty to stop him and to do that they had to find as much information about the murderer.

Secondly, due to the large amount of wanted posters with Vash the Stampede's face on them, he could no longer travel freely. The only place that he may be welcomed and protected would be in Inepril, the city that he, on two occasions, had risked his life to save.

"Meryl?" Millie asked quietly. The shorter insurance girl was surprised that Millie had not fallen asleep by then. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Millie," Meryl was glad that Millie was in a talkative mood now; it would help keep her awake. 

"Um…back in Jeneorarock," As Millie said this, Meryl felt a rock form in her stomach for she had an idea as to what the other woman was going to ask about. "Why was Mr. Knives's name on that wall? How could the person doing all this stuff know him? Why did he keep talking about 'his demon'?"

As she bit her lip, Meryl tried to come up with an answer to explain it to Millie, without actually explaining everything. Instead, she tried to change the subject, "That's not a question, Millie. That was three!"

"Please tell me, Meryl…I want to know…" her eyes were sad and she didn't understand what was happening. Meryl felt bad about not being able to tell her, but she and Vash decided it was best if Millie didn't know about Knives's past.

"Please!" Meryl said sharply, but she softened her tone, "please Millie …understand. There are some things you shouldn't know about."

"If you say so, Meryl," Millie said unconvincingly. Meryl could easily tell that would not be enough of an explanation for Millie, but she couldn't tell her friend anything more in fear of her reaction in learning of Knives's connection to the death of Nicholas D. Wolfwood.

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

"We don't have any idea what could have happened to the plant to cause the problem," Elizabeth explained to Vash as they walked through the plant, heading towards the room below the infected plant; the very same room that Elizabeth had tried to kill him in.

Vash and the others had gotten into Inepril the night before and were shocked at what they saw. They had expected the city to be on hard times again, but what they saw made the first problem the city had with the plants seem like a minor annoyance. A portion of the city was covered with sand; at least a hundred people capable of paying their way out of the city had done so and the others, stuck in the town for lack of money, were bitter and fought over what food and water any of the shops had. In turn, the shops raised their prices due to lack of products.

He didn't know why, but Vash believed that whoever had done this had done it not to kill the population like the murderer had in Jeneorarock. He believed that this person, being Knives's minion and Gung-Ho Gun, somehow twisted the plant's mind so that it would attack it's brothers and sisters for one purpose: to make Vash the Stampede's one safe refuge, Inepril, a Hell for him. 

Everywhere he looked, Vash felt the touch of his brother's hatred of the humans; the starvation, the dehydration, the hate the humans now suffered through was a direct cause of Knives and his urge to exterminate humanity. Vash would almost call it an 'insatiable' urge, but he hoped that was not the case. Deep down, he thought—he _knew _that Knives could change.

At the moment, though, Knives was not to be trusted, not even by his own twin. Vash left him back with the girls; he knew that if Knives tried anything, the two women could handle him by themselves. Of course, that's only because Knives was unarmed at the time.

Elizabeth continued explaining the situation to Vash. "Along with the problem with the plant, the owner of nearby gunshop was killed and a large number of his weapons were stolen." This didn't entirely surprise Vash; if it was a Gung-Ho Gun, then it's no shock that the killer would steal weapons. She continued, "We doubt the plant and the thievery have anything in connection with one another, but it strange for two things like that to happen."

At first, the Stampede had been surprised to see the woman's change in clothing, but he realized that it was all because of the fact that she came to terms with herself after the incident involving the two of them. Ever since the woman lost her parents in July, she had a feeling of weakness and insecurity, so she used her body to as a means of earning respect—shallow respect, but respect nonetheless. 

Then, when she had given up her hate of Vash, she came to terms with her other problems, and realized she didn't need cleavage to gain false respect; she now had reverence for herself. Vash was happy for her, of course, but…he still felt a bit disappointed about not seeing her in her old dress.

"The strangest thing we found, though," she said as they neared the door to the room, "was this." The engineer typed in the code to unlock the door and it shot open. Across the room, painted in a red liquid on the wall was one word. A word that sent horrible nightmarish memories shoot through the pacifistic gunman's head.

Augusta.

"We don't have a clue why whoever it was that did this put 'Augusta'," Elizabeth noticed that Vash's eyes showed a tiny bit of the guilt he felt for the destruction of the city as she said its name, "We also learned that it was written in blood."

Vash stood there for many minutes, staring at the name of the city—the second city he ever destroyed—before he responded, "I don't think there's anything I can do here…"

"But…you helped with the plant before, surely there's something…" Elizabeth trailed off.

The man shook his head, "No…not now, at least. I have no idea what the plant's problem is…and there is also someplace I now have to go to soon."

The woman let a sigh. She had known from the beginning that even Vash the Stampede wouldn't be able to perform another miracle. "Well…you, better be going now, it's late. I'm sure Meryl and the other two will be wondering what's taking you so long."

He stared at the woman with eyes filled with sadness, guilt, and pain. "I'm…I'm very sorry that I couldn't do anything. I want to help Inepril, but…"

"Oh, it's okay…that's what we engineers are here for, right?" she let out a short fake laugh. "Now, get going and leave me alone. You should leave me before she starts to get suspicious and jealous."

This confused Vash. "Before who gets jealous?" Elizabeth laughed, a genuine laugh this time, but she did not answer him. Soon, Vash was gone and he was headed back to the hotel that he and the others were staying at.

_A Gung-Ho Gun…_Vash thought to himself, _I don't need this…after I beat Knives, I had hoped that I could toss away my guns and my coat to live a better, simpler life. I don't want to have to fight another over-powered madman…I just want a happy, simple life…but, that is not possible for me. It's not possible for Vash the Stampede…_

In the back of his mind, Vash heard a frightening and sickeningly familiar voice speak to him; a voice that mocked him and laughed at him, and yet was a scream of hate in all the same simple monotone voice; a voice that explained Vash's continuing problems.

"You will experience eternal pain and suffering…"

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

A/N: Vash never gets a break…but then again, if he did there wouldn't be too much conflict. So, what did Vash leave to find? Why is 'Augusta' written in that room? How is Cherub stronger than Legato, who of which was supposed to be the strongest of the Gung-Ho Guns? Well, you'll find out in the next chapter…well, okay, if it goes as planned, it'll be in the chapter after that, but still. 

Well, forget my rambling, it's time for you to review!

-waits patiently for reviews-__


	7. Chapter Six: GONE, ONCE AGAIN

A/N: Sorry for taking so long to get this up. This chapter was boring as hell to write, so I'm not too sure if it's interesting to read. The next chapter is going to be more interesting, but there is a couple things that have to happen in this chapter first. 

So, anyways...read and review or…whatever…

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Along Came A Spider 

Chapter Six: GONE, ONCE AGAIN

With fists clenched and back erect, I made my way down the streets of Inepril, avoiding contact with the humans in my trek to the Plant. I had managed to slip out of the hotel without either of the women seeing me, but I knew my absence would not go unnoticed for long.

The reason for my temporary escape was to find more information about the Gung-Ho Gun that visited here recently, leaving his mark on the city. To do that, I had to make it to the Plant, which is where Vash was. In a best situation, I hoped to get in, find any evidence of my demon's being there and get back to the hotel before my presence there was noticed as missing. 

That, though, was a long shot. I hoped that I could at least get into the plant without running into Vash. Whether those humans noticed that I was gone was really of little importance, since I could easily discount my leaving as going for a walk or to get some fresh air. I doubted those would be able to convince Vash of otherwise, but if he was unable to find evidence of me going to the Plant, then he would do nothing.

I quickly made my way and in a short time was standing before the sealed door of the immense structure. As I reached out to the small panel of keys that I would have had to hack into the main computer with so that I could enter, the door shot open and before me stood my brother.

"Knives!" Vash shouted. "What are you doing here?!" Ever since the incident in Jeneorarock the other day, he had had very little patience with me. "Where are the girls?!"

I scowled. I hadn't expected him to be leaving the same time that I had been entering. "They are alive, if that is what you are worried about." I purposefully left the first question unanswered, because I did not doubt that Vash already knew why I was here.

"Well, I'm going back, so you are coming with me."

"I will not," I said with a frown. "I came here to learn of—"

"You are coming back with me!"

A look of curiosity spread across my face. "You are ordering me? Dear brother, I the situation you have found us in has gone to your head; you may have beaten me and healed me, but I will not obey you."

Vash's face shook with anger. All the things that had happened to him over the past few days had been a tax on even his patience. 

"Do you really think I will leave without a look inside?" I shook my head. "You're making this much harder than needs be."

"No! You are going back to the hotel with me and you are going to forget everything about this new Gung-Ho Gun and…" he slowly stopped talking when he noticed something behind me. I turned and there, standing quietly, were the two women. "Let's go, Knives…"

"Why are you so afraid to show them your anger?" the question shocked Vash. "They deserve to be frightened of you, of your power, of what you can do and have done. You are much too patient with _them._"

"Leave them out of this! They have nothing to do with any of this!" Vash spoke the next sentence into my mind, _"And you have caused Millie too much pain as it is…"_

Not understanding that last part, I ignored it. "Oh, but they do! Along with the rest of them, they are the reason why we fight and why you are hurt. It is their fault." By this time our quarrel collected the attention of some humans that were watching us with interest, undoubtedly waiting for a physical fight to erupt to quench their beastlike hunger for violence.

"Stop saying that! We go through this every time we get near each other. Don't you understand that it's wrong? Everything you say is wrong!" Vash began to grow unstable, his eyes watered and his clenched fists shook from tension.

I smirked and looked at the audience around us. "I could kill them all…"

Many of the humans stared at me in shock, but only one had the nerve to step forward from the rest, "Hey! I don't like the way you're talking, pal!"

"Fool!" He yelled at him. "You want to argue with me? You want to fight ME?! Look!" I stabbed a finger towards Vash, who happened to be having a bit of a nervous breakdown. "He cowers before me! He is Vash the Stampede, the man you all fear so, and he is afraid of me! He fears me and cries in front of me!"

"No…" Vash said past the lump in his throat. 

I looked at him curiously. "What?"

"I don't…I am not…afraid of you! I do not fear you! I do not cry because of you…" he looked into my eyes. "Brother, I fear _for _you…I cry _for _you." My mouth gaped open, and I tried to shove words out of my mouth, but the intensity of his stare and his words drove me speechless and left me dumbfounded. 

He spoke slowly and quietly, but despite this, his voice was heard clearly and precisely, "I fear that you'll get what you want and, in the end, you will regret it."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Once I had returned to my room at hotel (without learning anything about my demon, I might add), I could not decipher what Vash had meant. What would I possibly regret after exterminating the humans and freeing my fellow Plants? It did not make sense…

There was a knock at my door accompanied by a voice. "Mr. Knives? May I come in?" It was the tall human. Before I could answer, the door opened and she walked in, leaving it open only by a hair. "Mr. Knives there's something I need to ask you…well, a couple things, or maybe it's only one…no, it's a couple…"

The human babbled on and, quickly, I couldn't take it anymore. "Just ask!" the quicker I got this over with, the sooner she would leave. As a looked at her, I got this odd feeling in the back of my mind; Vash and I, although unable to directly read the minds of humans, did have the ability to _sense_ human minds. At the moment though, this human was confounding me. It felt as if there were two minds at work, hers and a much weaker undeveloped one. I shook my head, thinking that that was impossible.

"It's about in Jeneorarock…well, and at the plant, too…um…" she said, brining my thoughts back to what was at hand.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Yes, I remember what happened, since I was at both."

"Oh…yeah…" she was having trouble getting out whatever it was she needed to ask. I wondered why Vash let her come to me? _He probably doesn't know she's in my room…either that or he does and he's letting her in here to toture me, _I thought to myself.

"Well, I wanted to ask you why your name was in Jeneorarock and why you were laughing and why you got into a fight with Mr. Vash today and…um…that's it, I suppose."

Ever since I had awoken those few weeks ago, I had been awaiting a question such as that to be asked by her. Now that she had asked, my answer would be simple, quick, and concise; if I was lucky, it would give her respect for me, or it would strike fear into her. Either way, she would not bother me for much longer.

"It is because I, Millions Knives, brother to the one called Vash the Stampede that you hold so dear, am the master of the Gung-Ho Guns." As I spoke, her eyes grew wide. She obviously recognized the name 'Gung-Ho Guns'. "I am the one Vash sought to battle when he left you and the other woman, that is why we were wounded.

"Why was I happy to find my name in that ghost town? It is simple…that was the symbol of the Gung-Ho Guns, meaning that it was a Gun that wrote it."

"You…" she trailed off for a second, as if she was suddenly having a flash of memory. "You're the one that sent that Legato man after Mr. Vash?"

I smiled, "Of course! Legato was intelligent—for a human—but, he needed direction. Everything he did, I ordered him to."

The human's eyes watered and a pinch of confusion hit me. I had expected her to be angry or scared, but this was an odd reaction. "Wh-what about Mr. Wol-wolfw—"

"The priest? Pfft!" I snorted, "Legato's killing of him was the best order I had—" before I knew what had happened, I found myself on the ground, my face sore from what seemed like a punch, and the back of my skull throbbing from pain given to me by a crash into the wall.

It took a few seconds to collect my thoughts, and then, I looked up to the woman, and she stood there, her face filled with hate that I could not have imagined existed in a being like her. Her face was red and water poured down her cheeks. Her right hand throbbed a bit as if she had just hit something…

_She punched me! I didn't even see the swing, Hell I barely realized that I had been hit until after the fact! What the Hell is this woman's problem?_

Her lip quivered and she wiped her face with her sleeve. "You…you…jerk!" She swung at me more, and the confusion in my mind seemed to make everything go faster, so I did not do anything besides raising my arms to hold back the onslaught. She let out more insults as she slammed her fists (oddly powerfully, I might add) into my forearms. "You bastard!" that one really surprised me.

As blow after blow landed on my arms, I did nothing to retaliate. I did nothing to cease it. I only stared at her. I stared as a spoiled child would to the first person that took the initiative to discipline it. The confusion and shock couldn't leave my system to allow me to move or make sense of the situation.

Bursting through the doorway came the short human who gasped at the site. "Millie?!" The tall one ceased from the mad barrage of my arms and rushed to the smaller woman. "Oh, Meryl!" tears were streaming down her face. "h-he…he…Wol-Wolf…" she couldn't get the words out of her mouth and instead fell to her knees; the black-haired woman glared at me with eyes filled with hate, more hate than were there before, and more hate than I could possibly imagine her showing me being so close in quarters such as these.

I stood and, being in a state of confusion from the attack, stumbled out of the room and bumped into my brother. "What is her problem?" I asked him in a tone of genuine confusion.

"This is why I didn't tell her about me, about you, about the Gung-Ho Guns, or anything in connection with Wolfwood's death…" Vash spoke to me, but his eyes were on the two women, the smaller one hugging the other as she wept.

"What would she gain from attacking me?! Why did she…" I, for the first moment in a  long while, had been truly confused by a human.

Shaking his head, Vash spoke quietly, "It's not about what she has to gain, it's about what she lost…what you took from her—_who _you took from her…"

As I stared into the room at the tall woman, no…as I stared at _Millie_,the feeling I had confused me. She had beaten me, yelled at me, touched me, belittled me, but yet I was not angry in the normal sense. She was the first person to attack me like that, and it was, according to Vash, not out of greed or hate, but for concern for another.

I shook my head. No, it was impossible. Humans would not risk themselves for another, especially when that other was already dead. They do what they want for themselves, for personal gain…but, right before me, kneeling on the floor in the arms of her friend, was a direct contradiction to my theory and I did not know if that was a reason to be pleased or enraged.

Only once before was there a being that contradicted my theory on the human race and she died because of it.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

In her darkened room, Millie sat atop her bed; her face was stuffed into her palms and tears had left them wet. Up until her conflict with Knives, she had been able to contain her emotions, but now that she knew he had a major part in Wolfwood's death, she couldn't stop crying.

The woman now knew why Vash and Meryl, whenever she would ask about Knives's past, would ask her to be quiet or forget about it; she was unsure if asking Knives was a bad idea, but she wanted the truth and now she had it. 

A hiccup escaped her throat and made Millie's body jump a bit. For the past month, ever since the day Wolfwood died, she had felt empty, as if she had lost a part of herself that she never knew she had. 

The usually abnormally happy and cheerful woman now tried her best to hold back her tears, but it was impossible for her. Millie placed a hand over her gut; although Wolfwood was gone and she felt torn, there was a part of him in her and in more ways than one. 

She laid down into her bed and cried herself to sleep.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Vash stood outside near the vehicle they had been using. He came out into the night to get the items he had gone searching for a few days back when they had been driven out of town. The trunk popped open, and inside was a collection of items dear to him, but yet hated by him.

A tattered ball of red material, a cross, two guns, one black and one silver, and another metallic gun. It was his coat, Wolfwood's cross punisher, the colt revolvers of his brother and himself, and the gun chamber of his mechanical arm. He had left each in the desert in hopes that none would have a need in his life again, but, as fate so often did to him, he had no choice but to wield the weapons of a killer in hopes of ending death.

He had already been wearing his leather suit when he came out, so he slipped into the red trench coat right at that moment. He placed the .45 revolvers into the holster pockets on each of his thighs, his own on his right and Knives's on the left. 

Vash opened the chamber of his left arm, the prosthetic one, and normally, the gun would have slipped out into the ready, but Knives had shot it off during their last battle. It was easily fixable, though, and in a few moments it was working as good as it was when he first got it from Doc.

Grabbing the straps of his friend's weapon, he tossed the cross punisher over his shoulder with a loud thump. Vash did not want to take it, since it was rightfully Millie's, but he did not want to bother her and Vash did not know the true strength of the Gung-Ho Gun he was to meet.

Under the light of the moons, including the bright crimson of the Fifth Moon, the one that held the legacy and the mark of the Humanoid Typhoon, Vash stood not as the man he had hoped to become, but, once again, as Vash the Stampede, the man he was cursed to be for all time.

As he walked away from his home, and what he wished to consider his family, the cold desert night air brushed through his hair. He soon reached the outskirts of Inepril and, looking into the direction of the ruins that had once been Augusta, took his first step towards his new opponent.

He didn't get to take another step, since the fist of a certain insurance agent smacked him in the back of the head, making him jump and yelp like a little child. "And where do _you _think _you're _going?! HUH?!" Meryl yelled at Vash's face. "You better not being going to do something stupid, Mr. Typhoon!"

Vash rubbed the back of his head and smiled at Meryl, "Well…you know me, me and stupidity are kinda inseparable."

 "You don't have to tell ME that…" Meryl sighed. "You're going to find that Gung-Ho Gun, aren't you?" her eyes were filled with a sense of hope, hoping that she was wrong, but she also had the look in her eye that showed she knew she was right.

"I…I have no choice…" Vash stammered, "I must stop he, or she, or it, or whatever from killing. It is my job to stop it, since my brother is the cause of this and he doesn't seem to be willing to clean up his own mess."

Meryl let out a short laugh, "You're brother…" she didn't need to say anything for Vash to know how strongly she hated Knives for what Millie was going through. She stared into Vash's eyes intently, "You better come back. If you don't I'll be ticked."

A goofy grin grew on his face. "Oh, I wouldn't want that. It would make a Gung-Ho Gun look friendly…" Meryl punched him in the arm, but Vash could see the smile on her face. Before Meryl knew what happened, Vash wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.

With her legs dangling a foot or so off the ground and suddenly being squeezed tightly by a this man, Meryl was more than a little shocked, but she didn't fight it. The hug was tight, but  not crushing and she actually squeezed back.

After a few moments, Vash put her down and took a step back. "I need to go now…he, whoever he is, is waiting for me."

Meryl nodded. "Yes, you do. You're right, it is your job, you need to stop everything evil that Knives has placed on this planet Good-bye…"

"Good-bye, Ma'am!" Vash grinned at her and then, turned and walked away. Meryl wiped a tear and shouted to him, "You better not die!"

Vash waved and responded, "Thanks for the advice!" Meryl wiped another tear and, being too far away to see, did not notice Vash doing the same. And, for the second time, Vash was gone, once again.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

As days passed during his trek through the desert towards the ruins of Augusta, Vash the Stampede could only think of two things. One was the inevitable fight against the (according to Knives) Leader of the Gung-Ho Guns, but the other, which occupied his mind even more than the soon life or death battle that may decide the fate of the world, was that of a short, black-haired insurance agent.

He quickly found himself in the ruins of the city. Mounds of debris, metal, wood, and other types of substances, littered the area. Large portions of many homes and buildings were still erect, but the proof of the existence of others were only the jagged fossils that arched into the air and laid atop the ground.

Vash's gaze stuck to the form of a being standing atop of a large jagged portion of metal that stood upright. He jumped back as the features of the boy came into his focus. The face on the Gung-Ho Gun was familiar beyond anything. The boy, appearing to be of fifteen years of age, had eyes identical to that of Vash. The boy's mouth however resembled Knives's. The build of his body was similar to both, and the hair, which hung freely near the boy's waist, was the pale blonde of Knives's own locks.

Overall, the boy standing above him atop the piece of rubble looked as Vash would had he been a teenager. Mouth gaping open, Vash stared in disbelief as the boy, who wore a black trenchcoat similar, but not identical, to Vash's red one, looked down upon him with a smile of elation. 

As the warm air of day blew through the area, the boy's coat did not move, undoubtedly being weighed down by the dozens of weapons stolen from the Inepril gunsmith. The boy opened his mouth and called down to Vash in a greeting that chilled him to the bone and shocked him even more. 

"Hello, Uncle!"

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A/N: this one is a bit shorter than the past few chapters, but that's because I didn't want to go any further. The next chapter will explain Cherub and everything, so…um, yeah, I'll get to writing that one soon. That's the one I've been looking foreword to writing the most so far. Not only that, but we'll all get to learn how good I am with fight scenes…

Anyways, time to review!!


	8. Chapter Seven: CHERUB THE SERAPHIM

A/N: Well…uh…don't have much to say other than this chapter is probably the most important so far when it comes to plot development stuffs. Read and review! I really hope I didn't suck with the fighting…

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Along Came A Spider 

Chapter Seven: CHERUB THE SERAPHIM

The boy standing atop the metal spire jumped, falling the twenty feet from his perch to land before Vash. The landing sent a cloud of sand into the air and made the boy's stolen black shake and the weaponry within it rattle. Vash was in awe at the presence of this boy; he came to the ruins of Augusta to stop a mass murderer, not meet a kid that claimed to be his nephew.

Despite the unease Vash felt, he needed to admit that the boy did look as he had, long ago during the short time that Vash was a size equivalent to that of a human teenager. The long hair was a bit different, but it reminded him of Knives's before he had cut it.

"Did you hear me?"

Vash shook his head when he realized that the boy was talking to him. "Uh…what?" 

The boy 's eyebrows sunk as he apparently grew agitated. "Are you or are you not Vash the Stampede? You look as I thought he would, but I must be sure."

"Oh…heh, yeah, I'm Vash." _This kid, if he is a Gung-ho Gun, is a bit more talkative than the others…_ Vash removed the cross punisher from it's resting place along his back and stood it up on the ground.

"So, Vash—Uncle—you came in the place of Father…I had hoped to see him before you, but there is nothing that can be done about it." Vash couldn't help but note the tone of disappointment in the boy's voice.

"So, um…uh, kid. Hey, you haven't told me your name yet…" Being deeply confused, Vash wanted to figure out what the Hell was going on as quickly as possible; his head was starting to hurt from trying to solve it on his own. He added, "And why are you here? You shouldn't been in a place like this."

The kid smirked. "Oh, so I suppose I must introduce myself. The others did it, so I must, too…" he stood up straight and proud. "I am the Leader, along as the fifteenth and final member of the Gung-Ho Guns.

"I am Cherub the Seraphim!"

Vash let out a sigh and slowly closed his eyes. He had hoped that he had been wrong, that maybe this boy, Cherub, was here coincidentally, but, as always, what Vash wished, he did not receive. He turned Cherub's words over and over in his head, and one piece did not make sense. "Fifteenth?"

"Yes…as you well know, Midvalley was twelfth member, Legato was fourteenth…" as cruel smile, one resembling Knives's, wriggled its way onto the face of Cherub. "And the friend that you and the women held so dear and close, the priest clad in black, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, was the thirteenth member of the Gung-Ho Guns."

"What?! Th-that can't be true!" the words Vash spoke were meant to argue against Cherub's words as much as they were to convince himself that the boy was wrong or lying. But, no. Vash knew now the truth, but all along the thought was in the back of his mind. The thought sprung up when Wolfwood, right before his death, had told him where to find Knives. Only a Gung-Ho Gun would know anything about him, but Vash had hoped otherwise.

"Yes, the priest was one of us, rather, one of _them_. Chapel the Evergreen announced it too him soon before Legato used the body of the Evergreen to kill the priest."

"It doesn't matter," Vash began slowly, "_what_ Wolfwood was. The only thing that matters is _who _he was. He was Nicholas D. Wolfwood, he was a great man, and he was a close friend. He was brave and did what he could to help people."

Cherub snorted, "And look at where that got him. He was as flimsy and dense as any other human, and now he is dead, just as the others you killed. You are the murderer of the Gung-Ho Guns, who were to be my toys if it wasn't for your insatiable need to get in their way."

"I…I didn't kill them!" he protested. 

"In what way do you think yourself free of the responsibility of their deaths? They died because they lost to you. You killed them all, from Monev, to the child Zazie; from Midvalley to Miss Dominique. And of course, because of you, your friend Nicholas died, and soon after, you shot Mister Bluesummers straight through the skull.

"You, Vash the Stampede, are the Slayer of the Gung-Ho Guns!"

"I had no control over what happened to them! I had no choice to kill Legato, and I could not help Wolfwood!" anger and sadness, spawned by the uprooted memories that had been buried, seeped into Vash. This child, this so-called 'Leader of the Gung-Ho Guns' pressed each and everyone of Vash's buttons, as if they had argued many times before and Cherub had grown accustomed to enraging the man.

Sighing and shaking his head, Cherub's smile turned to a frown. His eyes were closed and he spoke thoughtfully. "You will never admit the truth to yourself, will you?" his eyes opened, staring into Vash's. "But, it does not matter now. You are here, and you posses something that I must have." He reached his hand out, "Give me your weapon. I must have it."

"What?! Don't you think you have enough weapons in that big coat of yours?"

"These pale in comparison to the weapon that you wield! The gun that carved the hole into the Fifth Moon, give it to me! I AM INCOMPLETE WITH OUT IT!" at this point, the kid was shouting his lungs out at Vash, but had not taken a step closer, keeping the space between them roughly ten yars.

"Sorry, but I hate the fact that I have to carry this thing around. I'm not going to let you have it."

Cherub, with obvious disappointment in his face, lowered his arm to his side. "Very well, Uncle. If this is the way you want it, then so be it." Vash saw the movement that Cherub made: a slight and quick jerk of his arm that would have been invisible to anyone else. 

Seeing this as quickly as he did, Vash had time to leap behind a nearby pile of twisted metal before the guns that Cherub had pulled out of his sleeves could find their mark. The sound of bullets against steel echoed behind Vash, but the noise soon stopped. Sparing a glance around his shield, he saw the cross punisher, which had been knocked to the ground by the onslaught, but there was no Cherub.

The sound of a single, light tap entered Vash's ear and he rolled forward, twisting as he did so, so to bring his front to face his former hiding place. His revolver in hand, he fired at the figure standing atop the rubble. The single bullet the man fired made contact with the gun in Cherub's left hand, sending it into the air, then landing atop the pile, hidden among the shards of metal.

Not close to victory, Vash scrambled onto his feet and ran, just as bullets from the remaining gun, identical to the first and grasped with Cherub's right hand, shot forth and struck the ground that he had been on. Rushing to a nearby building, Vash shot out a window and jumped through into the building.

He turned and aimed out the hole that he had used for his entrance, expecting to see the boy rushing over, but instead Cherub leapt from his spot, and landed onto the ground, still a good fifty feels from Vash. The boy pulled something from one of the pockets in his coat, and pitched it with all his strength…right into Vash's face.

"Ow! Damn, that was a good shot…" he said while inspecting his forehead with a finger, checking for lumps or a wound. His eyes settled onto the ovoid metallic object Cherub had pummeled him with. Vash's eyes shot wide open in fear, "Shit!" he leapt out the window and back onto the street, scrambling for cover as the grenade detonated behind him.

As he stood still as stone, Vash listened for any signs of the absent Cherub. There were none. Wandering alone down the street, Vash kept his gun in hand. The last sliver of light from the second sun disappeared over the horizon, bathing the town in the light of two full moons.

"Why do you fight?"

The words startled Vash and he spun in a quick circle, while bringing his weapon to bare on the shadowed figure standing atop one of the few erect buildings. The figure was obviously Cherub, although the light of the Fifth Moon, which hung behind the boy, made it impossible to see his features clearly. 

The shadowy figure, surrounded by the bloody light of the moon, stared down at Vash. The sight of Cherub's silhouette against the moon—the same moon he had carved the crater into—unsettled him. "What do you mean?" Vash responded.

"Why do fight against me? Why do you fight Father? Why do you fight for them?"

Vash knew right off where the conversation was heading. "Not this again…" he mumbled to himself. "I have told Knives enough times," now speaking directly to the shadow, "People don't deserve to die; we are not better than them; we do not make the choice of who lives and dies."

It was many moments until Cherub replied, "You, along with Father, are Plants. You are greater than any human." The statement was laced with deep confusion; the boy was truly puzzled by Vash.

"That's not true. You seem smart, you should be able to figure that out for yourself." 

"…humans have enslaved us. Only you and Father were born into this world with free will…"

"But that does not mean anything!" Vash was hoping that, with a little more prying, he could change Cherub's mind. With any luck, there would be no reason to fight any longer.

Cherub stood silently, and as he did so, the crimson moon lifted higher into the sky, revealing his face to Vash. It was a glazed look that he had in his eyes, one of almost frighteningly deep thought.

The look in the boy's eyes disappeared as he laid his eyes onto Vash. "You hugged one of them?"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"You hugged, you _touched _a human…and it was one of affection."

Confused, Vash stared at the boy. _Is he talking about me and Meryl? But…how could he possibly… _"What are you talking about?"

Nothing more than contempt was in Cherub's eyes as he responded, "The short human. The female with black hair, the one you know as Meryl Stryfe."

Taking a step back in shock, Vash took a moment to speak. "How do you know…"

A short, abrupt laugh was Cherub's only vocal reply. A voice appeared in Vash's skull, _"You're mind is nothing more than an open book to me." _Vash gasped and quickly used his own powers to create a wall to block the boy's prying consciousness. "It's not very nice to read other people's memories."

"No matter. I could tear that wall of yours down and expose you to every nightmare stored within that bucket of trash you call your mind, but I won't do that. I don't want to risk finding a more sickening thought or memory you have of that _thing."_

"She is not a thing!" Vash argued. "She is living and breathing, and—"

"Tell me, Uncle," Cherub said, interrupting Vash, "Can you answer me this riddle?

"Humans change their surroundings, they destroy their world and the things in it for what they think is their own personal gain. They do this over and over, annihilating their own life source in a selfish urge to live and consume.

"Tell me, Uncle, what is the only other creature in the universe that does the same?" Vash didn't bother guessing. "It is easy. Will you answer? No? Fine…

"The only other being that destroys their surroundings in what seems to be an attempt to live are none other than viruses. Humans have more in common with them than they do chimps!

"Humans are not animals. They are neither mammals nor primates! THEY ARE VIRUSES!"

"That is not completely true!" Vash's voice sounded more of a plea than anything else, "Grant it, many humans do seem to prove what you say, but many, many more don't act the way you think they do!"

"You're even more stubborn than I thought you would be. You are no uncle of mine, you are no better than a human, and if you did not wish to change, then you never will." Cherub tossed three tiny balls at Vash, who tried to duck from them, but was caught in the cloud created by the smoke bombs.

As he coughed, Vash shot into the cloud aimlessly, hoping to keep his opponent away from him. As the dust settled, Vash soon realized that Cherub had not used the smoke as cover to attack him, but as a distraction so he could grad a new weapon: a long steel pole from a pile of debris atop the building.

Lifting up his right hand, Vash revealed his hidden machine gun as Cherub rushed to the edge of the building. He shot a few rounds, but the boy did not jump with his legs alone, using, instead, the rod as a make-shift pole-vault, flying into the air, his long hair and coat flowing behind him.

Cherub the Seraphim flew threw the air with the steel lance, and as he fell towards Vash the Stampede, who was trying to get a non-lethal shot off at him, stuck his staff out. He fell towards Vash, and the lance  entered the man's left bicep, puncturing the arm and stabbing into the earth behind him.

Vash let out a yelp of pain and dropped his revolver. Although it was a prosthetic limb, it was created with a fake nervous system so that Vash would have more control over it and it would be as close to a replacement for a real arm as it possibly could. _Thanks, Doc…_he thought as he grabbed the wound that was seeping a type of black fluid that flowed in the robotic arm.

Ignoring his victory completely, Cherub walked past Vash, towards the gun the Stampede had dropped. Picking it up as if it was some type of tiny animal, Cherub held it before him. "Finally…the weapon that gave the name 'Stampede' to you, along with the title 'Humanoid Typhoon'." He cackled, "and now it is mine! I will finally be complete!"

As he looked on stunned, Vash clutched the 'blood' of his wounded arm. The steel pole had hit something important on its way through, since he could no longer move the hand or fingers of that arm.

"Finally…" Cherub spoke wistfully to the gun, "I will no longer be stuck in this human form…" He pointed the gun at Vash. "I am the most powerful being on Gunsmoke now!"

"It's always charming to see a boy your age with a nice healthy self-esteem."

"I will exterminate the viruses! But, first, I will show you the true power that I wield, and why I am greater than the humans…and greater than even you, Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon!" 

With his newly earned possession in hand, Cherub snapped his fingers. Two pieces of the gun fell, revealing the dark, cackling light inside of the chamber.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

I sat in a large room that made up most of the apartment that I was forced to share with the two human females. They were also in the room, each ignoring me. The short one was busy hammering away at her typewriter. Damn that machine…click after click after click. I was wanted to throw it out a window, but I refrained from doing so. Why, I do not know.

As for the other, Millie had been unusually out of character since she had attacked me many days before. Her new routing consisted of sitting and sulking, and when she had to move, she just moped around the apartment.

"He went to find my demon, did he not?" 

My voice made the short woman stop her work, but Millie had no noticeable reaction. She soon resumed typing and I let out a snort of laughter. The human slammed her hands against her typewriter and glared at me. She quickly stomped her way over to me. "Tell me," she began, staring in my eyes. "and tell the truth. What chance does Vash have of defeating this 'demon' or whatever the Hell it is?"

This new change in her appearance threw me off guard. Ordinarily she was too frightened to look at me, but now she was ordering me to answer her questions. I decided it would be fun to go along with it. "You mean, if he gives up his pacifistic ideas or he sticks with them? No…it doesn't matter. If he fights Cherub, he will likely lose, no matter how he goes about it."

She kept glaring at me. What was it with this woman? "there is a slight chance of victory for Vash, if he gives up on his 'ideals' and if he suddenly gains an unusual amount of good luck. But…if Cherub, my demon, gets his hands on one of the guns I created, then there is no one in this world, including myself, that could stop him."

It was the truth. I had made up none of it, and I could sense that the woman knew it. "Why do you ask?"

She stared at me a moment more before answering in a proud tone, "because I am afraid that he won't come back."

"You're saying that you fear for my brother? That you are worried for his safety?" I asked skeptically.

"Yes. And I do not give a damn whether you believe me or not, Knives." The look in her eyes, the unwavering determination in the face (literally) of something that frightened her made me fumble for words. Meryl relaxed a bit and took a deep breath. "What is this 'Cherub', anyways? I want to know what Vash is up against."

"As you must know now," I began, "Vash and I are not human, we are Plants born long ago. I will spare you the details, since I am quite sure Vash told you of them already. Despite being born from an enslaved being such as Plant, my twin and I were given free will, able to roam along land and whatnot without being confined to the prisons that now contain my siblings.

"But, over the years, I came to realize that the free will that we received was not entirely a blessing. We are only a fraction as strong as a normal Plant, as we are only capable of releasing a minor percentage of our total power. To fix this, I created a…hmm…have you ever heard the term 'clone'?" Meryl shook her head. "thought not…think of it as a doppelganger created on purpose. But this one…this one was more than that…

"I took DNA—the biological building blocks found within every creature, plant, and otherwise—from myself, and the arm I severed from Vash, and combined them. But. That was not enough. Oh no, not even close. I not only wanted a being with the attributes and freedom of Vash and myself, but also the powers and capabilities of a normal Plant. I wanted a being that would be in full control of his powers, capable of doing as little or as much with them as he pleased.

"In the end, after much genetic manipulation, I had a newborn creature—more than a Plant, and much more than Vash and I—that was to be an expert warrior and martyr for my race. He is missing one thing, and one thing only. The key to unlocking his true power. For, without the dark matter stored within the guns that Vash and I wield, my creation is nothing more than a weakened, free-roaming Plant such as Vash or I. 

"That is why, if Cherub, if my creation, gets a hold on Vash's gun, this world will have a terror of which that would make the Gung-Ho Guns, Legato, Vash, and myself look like children squabbling on a schoolyard."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The last of the moons had risen, creating a type of rainbow in the sky and illuminating Augusta with the light. Far below the many moons, Cherub stood with the gun of Vash the Stampede in hand, the crackling dark matter of the gun revealed to the night air.

Instead of his limb mutating into the Angel Arm, Cherub clutched the dark light with his free hand, pulling it from its encasement. He threw to the ground the gun, stumbling back as the dark matter was absorbed into his system.

Vash, out of surprise and with adrenaline, pulled the rod that skewered his arm from the ground and back away from the boy. Cherub stood gasping for breath, the dark light gone, soaked up by the boy's very spirit. He roared in agony and fell to the ground clutching his heart. 

Few a few moments Vash stood, staring at the now unmoving figure that lay on the ground. He grabbed onto the rod, which still impaled his bicep, and pulled it free, grinding his teeth past the pain as he did so. Tossing it to the side, Vash picked up his gun and put the pieces together, placing the weapon—now unable to create the Angel Arm—into his pocket. As he took  step towards the body of Cherub, the boy moved, standing up as if he was fine.

That quickly ceased, for Cherub began to gag and cough. He wrapped his arms around his stomach. Vash could see two lumps appear on the boy's back, directly over the shoulder blades and pushing the material of the coat up. In one last scream of agony, Cherub bent back and roared at the sky as two large _things _grew forth from his back. His breath slowly went back to normal, and he stood there in the light of the Fifth Moon reborn.

Gaping in awe, Vash stared at how Cherub had changed. The boy's hair was still a pale whitish blonde for the most part, but a large portion of the bangs, along with many other areas of his hair, were now a shade of blue. For the most part, Vash did not notice this. His gaze was locked onto the two large, silver projections on the boy's back. Each was as long as the boy was tall, and the silvery sheen glowed in the moonlight. They moved, but only slightly, as they aired out and stretched.

"Wings…" Vash said in awe.

Cherub stretched his newly grown wings as blood entered the arteries and veins. He shook them and loose feathers fell to the ground, glittering in the light of the night. As he looked over his new growths, he smiled devilishly. A dark laugh shot from his lungs and he turned to Vash, "See?! Do you not see what I am?! I have taken my first step to completion, and already I have almost unlimited power!" He reached into his coat and pulled something, causing the dozens of firearms, grenades, smoke bombs and other weapons fall to the ground. "I need these pathetic excuses of weapons no longer."

He gestured to the angelic wings and hair, "This is the destiny of our race, Vash. The destiny of becoming almighty!" Cherub pushed off the ground with his legs, and flapped his large wings. At first he toppled, but he quickly learned to use his new limbs. As he hovered in the air, he spoke down to Vash, "I will be going to the Plant of Augusta. Yes, it survived—just barely—your pathetic Angel Arm. If you wish to join me and Father, along with the rest of our siblings, meet me there. If you would rather live among your human friends, then go, and await your destruction how ever you would see fit."

Cherub turned and flew towards the center of Augusta, and he called back to Vash only once, "Make the right choice, Uncle."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A/N: So, was anyone surprised by Cherub's origin? Or what he became? Hehe…yes, I meant to make this chapter as strange as ever and I hope I did. Well, next chapter: another fight between Vash the Stampede and Cherub the Seraphim!

So…read and review!


	9. Chapter Eight: CRUEL RUIN

A/N: Yes, I know the last chapter was strange, but I tried to be as original with Cherub as I possibly could. I've given away almost every important piece of info about Cherub there is, except for a few interesting, and odd, things. Most of which are shown in this chapter, but one important one won't come until later.

Oh, and  little note about Cherub's new clothing. I think I kinda forgot to mention in one of the last chapters, or I did and it was way too vague (I do that a lot ^_^;;), but he stole the trench coat from Inepril when he stole the weapons, since his Plant-space suit thingy couldn't hold them. So…yeah, if there's anything else that needs explaining cuz of my vagueness on certain details, just ask in a review.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Along Came A Spider 

Chapter Eight: CRUEL RUIN

The fluid still poured from the wound on Vash's mechanical arm as the man watched the last Gung-Ho Gun fly above the ruins of Augusta towards the city's surviving Plant.

Using the hand of the unwounded arm, he tore a long section of material from the bottom of his coat and, clumsily, tied it over the wound so that it would absorb the fluid. Vash stood and wobbled a bit; he was coming down from the adrenaline rush the battle had caused. 

"Well, at least it's been interesting," Vash commented. Looking away from the night sky, his eyes lingered on his left hand. With all his willpower, he commanded it to move, but it would not. It was useless.

Cherub's last offer echoed in Vash's skull. A skull, which at the moment, hurt. A lot. Rubbing his temples with his good hand, Vash thought of what his next action was to be. By the way the boy spoke, he would be willing to kill Vash unless he tossed away his pacifistic and loving attitude towards humans. Going to the Plant with the intent of changing Cherub was obvious suicide and would undoubtedly lead to Vash's permanent defeat.

Then again, that line of thinking never stopped Vash before.

Beneath the rainbow lights of the Gunsmoke moons, Vash the Stampede stood with silent determination, his gaze pointing in the direction of his destination, the Plant of Augusta. The man gently walked across the sandy streets, past the ruins that had once been hundreds and hundreds of homes for thousands of people, cut down to useless rubble by the man who now stood in their presence.

The power of the Angel Arm was one to be feared. It was nothing more than a weapon of mass destruction. It was a bringer of death and poverty. 

It was also a part of Vash. There was nothing he could do to deny that. All death, fear, hatred that came out of the Angel Arm was his fault. He was to blame, his cowardice for delaying his battle with Knives, his unwillingness to face his brother with all his might, if it were not for these, Augusta and July would still stand.

But now, his gun was lighter, not only from the physical loss of the dark matter that was the trigger, the stimuli that caused the transformation of his natural arm into a tool of annihilation, but also, the burden of carrying such a weapon was lost. 

That thought, though, did nothing to quell the fiery sense of concern fear that burned inside of him. There was a reason, beyond a new hair style and wings, for Cherub's hunger for the energy from the inside of Vash's gun.

Vash's last thought, as he lifted the cross punisher over his shoulder, was the  hope that the concern inside burned without purpose, for otherwise, if his thoughts of the Seraphim's motives were correct, then he had much more to worry about than his own death.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

I watched them intently; Meryl continuing her report to her superiors on the danger my brother currently posed and Millie continuing her silent sulking on the couch. It was a curious thing to behold, indeed, but much of it was strange to me. The violent, then suddenly numb reaction to the mention of my hand in the death of the priest Millie had was unusual; it was as if an old wound, one that was being hidden and ignored for the sake of the pain, had suddenly been reopened.

I thought of that for many minutes, and the logic that she felt this pain because of the man's death confused me. I had always thought that humans felt their pain alone, but she appeared to be hurting for the priest, to be hurting because of him, to be _grieving _for him.

But what would she earn or gain for this? Millie obviously did not enjoy the pain, so it was not something she brought upon herself willingly. Could it be that the loss of the man alone brought this upon her? It was to be considered, but to hurt, to grieve for someone, for no gain, is the exact opposite of the definition of selfish, and that would mean she was not the same as I had thought humans to be.

I shook my head. I was thinking much too deeply about that human, so I turned to the other.

Only to sense the same feeling of hurt for another. But Meryl's appeared to caused by…was it fear I saw in her? In her eyes? In the shallow glimpse of her mind that I was able to sense? I would have once said that that fear was caused by my presence, but the brash and—I would slightly admit—brave attitude she had towards me hours before then more than disproved that idea. 

Did she speak the truth from before? Was this fear and pain that she felt, this worry and anguish, this sorrow and aggravation caused by, as she had claimed, Vash's current state? If it were, then Meryl was another example of compa—_no, I would not think that of a human, _I told myself. 

But, to not admit that they did not _appear _to feel compassion towards another, out of unselfish reasons, would be ignorant.

Were they as I had claimed all humans to be? Or, were they different, apart from the egotistical, squabbling race that humans were meant to be? Or, was I wrong in my observations of the two women?

Only time would tell, and I until then, the confusion in me would only build and other unanswerable questions would surface because of the actions of these two.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Inside the dark corridors of the plant, Vash stumbled, cross punisher still along his back, and the two revolvers at hand, resting in his coat's pockets. The fluid had finally stopped flowing from his wounded arm, but it was still immobile.  Luckily it was jammed so that it rested along his side, instead of being in a more awkward or annoying angle. 

From the moment he stepped into the vast remains of the ship, Vash had heard a voice in his mind from the last remaining Plant. Apparently only one survived the blast of the Angel Arm and the months following the incident. It did not seem to be doing well, since the voice was pained and was calling to Vash for help. He decided to see what he could do to help his sister, and then after find the wayward Plant child.

As he found his way to the Plant room, the mind of the Humanoid Typhoon drifted to what he had left back at Inepril. Meryl, Millie…he hoped that he would be able to return to them. It was obvious that Cherub was hell-bent on destroying humans, just as Knives was and defeating Cherub, in one way or another, whether he lost his life in the process or not, would be good, for it would protect the girls.

Inside the large, almost empty room, was an eerie  silence, made even more so by the injured voice in his mind. At the far end of the room, was the large glass vessel that held the hurt Plant. Even from the vast distance that separated them, Vash could see the faint glow of the being inside. 

Once he made it to the capsule, Vash realized that the Plant had left cocoon-like pod that they normally rested in, and was floating aimlessly in the glass bulb. The wing-like projections looked sickly and the being was apparently molting, which was not natural. The glow that they normally gave off was faint compared to what it should have been and its eyes stared off into nowhere.

A pang of hurt hit Vash in his heart, and his eyes watered as he, after setting the cross down, placed his palm onto the glass of the container. He had done this, to one of his own. She was, as the all were, siblings to him, and it hurt him deeply to think he had caused them this much pain. "I'll find a way to help you, Sister…"

"Don't you think you've done enough for her?" A voice called down from the darkness above Vash. He looked up, but the ceiling was in shadows, except for the few places where moonlight flowed through holes.

"Where are you, Kid?" Vash yelled up to the ceiling. 

He was answered with a laugh and a question, "You think I'm the child here?" after a few moments, the voice spoke again, but it came from behind Vash this time. "In your 130 years of life, you've been nothing but a child. Sensitive, ignorant, attached to your pacifistic ways taught to you by that woman. You cling to her memory like a small boy would to the hand of his mother."

"I've learned a lot in my time here! In 130 years I've been on this planet, I've seen a lot."

The voice echoed down, this time it came from the original place. "In the three months I have lived here, I have been met with nothing but hate and selfishness, pain and arrogance."

_Three months?! This kid is only three months old! How was he able to grow to the size he is, and with this much power? When we were a year old, we looked like ten year old humans, but this boy resembles a teenager, and he has only been around for a short time, _Vash thought to himself, _…Of course,_ he realized,_ Knives must have done something to quicken his development rate._

"You are surrounded by what you create. You've been doing the same things during your time here."

"Only because I have done what I could to clean up the viruses as I searched for you and Father." The voice was now coming from Vash's left. "Enough of this. By coming here, you have chosen to join me and Father, correct?"

"Um…nope. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's not going to happen." There was no response for many moments. Thinking he heard something, Vash jumped around with gun in hand, but all he saw were three shining feathers falling to the ground. 

A few seconds later, the voice returned, "That woman is going to die if you don't join us!"

In a heat of anger, Vash roared, "You really shouldn't talk that loud!" he pointed his gun seemingly in a random direction and fired. The gunshot was followed by a shriek of pain.

_"Nice shot, Vash, I must admit to that." _The voice was now solely in Vash's mind now, so as to prevent another accurate attack. _"But why do you do this? I still don't understand…"_

"Why do you kill them? What have they done to you?" Vash called out into the night. 

_"But they…they have hurt and killed our siblings…"_

"Does that not make you the same when you hurt them? And haven't you hurt our siblings?"

_"Th-that was only to help in the long run! I did what I had to so as to protect our entire race!"_ His voice was pleading; it seemed that Vash was getting to him.

"See? Our siblings don't want us to hurt people. We need to protect—"

"SHUT UP!" the voice screamed from the dark, "I have chosen my path, I do not need a reason for it, nor do I need to explain myself to you, Vash! 

"Have you chosen? If you are not with us, you are against us! Choose now, the Plants or the humans, what will it be?"

Vash took a deep breath and his heart seemed to shatter. His hopes of turning such a stubborn creature were for naught; it was pointless to go on. "I will not condone, much less help with the butchering of innocent people!"

"…then, you have chosen." 

From the pitch black, Cherub flew at Vash, slamming his fist into the gunman's jaw. Vash stumbled back and blocked the next blow with his good arm. After the block, he jabbed and hit the boy squarely in the chest. Not slowing even a fraction, Cherub continued his assault, punch after punch, most of which were blocked by the man, and returned with his own strikes.

One of Vash's blows connected with the shoulder bullet wound he had given Cherub previously, making the boy yelp in pain, but also increasing the ferocity of the barrage of punches.

With his ability to fly, Cherub was at an advantage, but the wounded Vash was holding his own, despite the fact. The Seraphim spun in the air, bringing his leg up to connect with the Stampede's skull, but Vash foresaw it and dodged it easily, jumping for the cross punisher afterwards. He grabbed onto the strap, and spun, pulling the weapon with him and swinging it like an ancient ball and chain weapon.

Cherub rushed at Vash again, only to be hit by the cross in mid-flight. He was knocked into the bulb of the Plant, causing cracks in the side to appear as he fell to the ground. The boy stood dazed but seemingly unharmed. He stared at his opponent for a moment, then jumped into the air, flying back into the darkness of the ceiling.

Standing still so as not to make a noise, Vash listened for the next attack. Instead of another strafing run by the winged boy, he heard a strange sound. It sounded like snapping metal. "What in the…" Vash's eyes widened in understanding, giving him enough pretense to avoid the falling iron beam. 

He kept moving so that the other heavy metal objects that Cherub released, one way or another, from the structure of the ship would hit nothing but the floor. After a few minutes of this, the beams stopped falling. _He must have used all the loose ones…_

 Awaiting the next attack, whatever it would be, Vash kept the cross punisher in hand to use as a bludgeon weapon; he was still unwilling to choose to kill the boy.

The wait was short-lived, as Cherub fell from the darkness, his silver wings glittering in the moonlight and blonde-blue hair waving. In his right hand was a long piece of steel, about five inches wide and four feet long. Vash waited anxiously, and curiously for the next attack.

Again, it was a short wait. The boy slashed at Vash with the steel shard as a makeshift sword. The fake blade came at Vash vertically, which he ducked to avoid, and the next strike, a horizontal down-ward slash was easily blocked, using the cross punisher as a shield. Cherub pulled back and thrusted the sword in an attempt to stab the man in the gut.

Using the cross punisher to block again, Vash was safe. It was an awkward use for the weapon, but it worked. He still did not want to risk killing Cherub by using either of the cross's two weapons.

Cherub thrusted again and again in an attempt to stab or skewer Vash, but the Humanoid Typhoon continued to block and parry with his unwieldy shield. One of the thrusts stabbed into the center of the cross punisher, getting lodged in the hole that contained the grip and trigger. As he tried to pull back, Cherub lost his grip on the jammed weapon.

With a smirk on his face, Vash thought he had won this round, with Cherub now unarmed, but he was wrong. Cherub front-flipped, at the end of which, he brought his heel down upon the grip of his weapon with great force, which turned the metal shard from a sword into a catapult. The force of the strike forced the cross punisher to come out of Vash's hands, the strap burning his palm with friction as it left his grip. 

The flip had left Cherub on his back, but he rolled slightly backwards, lifted his legs, and pushed off the ground, slamming his outstretched feet into Vash's chest. The gunman stumbled from the blow, but not losing a beat, swung his arm, hitting the now standing Seraphim in the face with the back of his fist. 

The boy held back his grunt of pain, and instead fell to the ground, turning as he did so. He outstretched his leg in a sweep of the ground, a tactic that was meant to trip Vash. Instead, Vash jumped easily over the attack. Cherub twisted at the end of his sweep, and jabbed with his fist, aiming for his opponent's chest.

Vash grabbed the boy's fist, preventing the jab from connecting, and raised his knee, striking Cherub under the jaw. He stumbled back, staring at Vash as the two collected their breath. Cherub jumped up again, returning to the shadows near the ceiling.

Still attempting to breath, Vash stared into the darkness, looking for any sign of Cherub. From the far end of the large room, Cherub flew like a falcon diving for prey; the boy flew at an incredible speed, only to keep coming faster as he neared Vash. Vash prepared to jump out of the way of the insane attack, but it was no use.

Cherub, using the energy built up by his flight to strike with an unblockable uppercut to Vash's chest, knocking the wind out of the man, and making him cough blood. The force sent Vash into the air, where Cherub continued his attack, landing punch after punch into the man, all the while keeping him in the air with the force of the barrage.

Ending the volley of strikes, Cherub grabbed onto Vash's collar and carried him into the air. After flying out of the room through one of the many holes on the ceiling, he released Vash, dropping him onto the top of the crashed SEEDS ship. The Typhoon rolled helpless off the domed area, but managed to grab onto the edge of a platform that ran the circumference of the structure.

After pulling himself up, Vash was able to see Cherub as the boy returned into the Plant room. The cold night air that Vash was now, once again, returned to would have normally chilled him to the bone, had it not been for the numbing effects of adrenaline and pain. Using his sleeve, he wiped blood from his mouth.

As he stood, Vash winced in pain. The platform he stood on was about four feet wide and disappeared around the edge of the ship in both directions. It was the highest one on the entire ship, easily two hundred feet above the ground. From here, the ruined city of Augusta was in clear view; the moons gave enough light for Vash to see the entire area.

More than two thirds of the entire city was nothing more than rubble; the surviving areas were in ruins. Only a small handful of homes and other buildings stood with their own power, nevertheless they were useless. The guilt of all the lives and homes he had destroyed weighed heavily on Vash's spirit, but for once he could not mourn, nor could he feel sorrow. Pushing his usual feelings aside, he turned his face grimly towards the top of the ship, where Cherub had entered.

After a few moments, the form of the Leader of the Gung-Ho Guns appeared, flying out of the ship and stopping to hover above it. In the darkness, the only prominent features that could be seen were the giant, shining silver wings and the pale blonde-blue hair; it gave the boy, the Gung-Ho Gun a ghastly appearance in the night.

Vash's eyes caught a glint of steel in the boy's hands, and he instantly recognized the weapon of his friend, Nicholas D. Wolfwood. He reloaded his revolver as Cherub turned, pointing his stolen weapon at Vash.

Staring down the barrel of the cross punisher, despite his distance from it, chilled him and made him remember his last confrontation with Wolfwood, the last day he had seen the man alive. The fact that the angelic demon now wielded the weapon of the priest was some sort of perverse irony.

A round of bullets shot from the cross punisher, hitting the general area of where Vash stood. He ran from the volley, shooting at the boy as he did so. His first shot missed, but the next three hit the cross punisher, throwing off Cherub's aim a great deal. The next bullet missed, but the last hit him in the shoulder, but not of the arm that wielded the cross.

Cherub's chilling shriek filled the air and blood poured from the two wounds on his left shoulder. His eyes glared hatred at Vash, but it seemed not to be vengeful hatred of a person, but the angry mad lust for blood of a beaten animal. He flew down to the platform and landed, aiming the weapon at the fleeing Vash as he did so.

Glancing over his shoulder as he ran, Vash watched for Cherub to make even the slightest movement, and when the boy did, Vash dropped onto his stomach so the bullets flew harmlessly overhead. He quickly reloaded his gun, and then rolled onto his stomach, firing three bullets at, not Cherub, but the cross punisher. One bullet miss its mark, ricocheting off the main section of the weapon, but the other two their intentional target, the end of the gun barrel itself.

The barrel dented only slightly from the two bullets, but it was more than enough. The next time Cherub pulled the trigger, the ammunition did not fire out of the barrel, due to the dents inside of it at the end of the chamber. The chamber of the gun smoked and sparks shot from the end of the barrel from the many clogged bullets.

Returning to the air, Cherub reversed his grip on the cross punisher, pointing the shorter end of the weapon at Vash. Eyes wide, Vash scrambled to his feet and ran. The boy squeezed the second trigger. The kick from firing the rocket sent him flying back. The projectile flew, slamming into a section of the platform that Vash had been on only seconds before. 

Cherub regained his composure, and chased his uncle, firing a missile at the man every chance he got, each time sending him tumbling back. The explosions continued to eat away at the platform, but failed to find their intended target.

Running from the explosions he heard behind him, Vash shot over his shoulder without looking, but heard no reaction from his pursuer, leaving Vash only to guess that he had missed.

One rocket, the last in the arsenal of the cross punisher, hit the area behind Vash, tearing the platform out from under him. His gun slid out of his hand, landing in front of him. Tumbling backwards, he almost fell to the ground two hundred feet below, but managed to get a grip on the railing of the platform. He dangled there, trying to pull himself up.

Vash looked below him, to the ground far below. His eyes grew wider, and he flailed his legs as he pulled himself up. He fell onto his side gasping for breath as he heard a loud crash the resembled a great deal of shattering glass. Soon after the sound, Cherub settled onto the section of platform directly in front of Vash. 

Noticing the lack off the cross punisher in Cherub's hands, Vash realized the boy has tossed it back into the ship, which accounted for the crash. _He must have hit the Plant's bulb…why would he break a hole in the top of it? _Vash thought for a moment, _It would be like a fish bowl, the only exit at the top, making it so that the contents could not escape…_He quickly realized that was exactly why Cherub had made a hole in the top of the bulb.

"It would have been pointless to defeat you with the weapon of a human, for it is more suitable to defeat you with my own power, the power we alone posses!" Cherub grabbed onto Vash's coat and flew above the ship, directly over the hole in the ceiling and the hole of the Plant's container.

Cherub latched onto the struggling man's limp arm, and managed to move so that Vash's back was to him. He spun, twisting the mechanical limb as he did so, weakening it in the area the had been skewered earlier. Cherub moved nimbly, despite his position and his wings, so that his feet were against Vash's back. He kicked off with all his might, still grasping the wounded arm.

The limb tore off, making Vash scream. Cherub threw the defeated man into the hole, tossing the useless robotic arm in with him. 

Flying further up into the air, Cherub made sure that there was at least three hundred feet between himself and the top of the ship. "REMEMBER!!" Cherub shouted with at the top of his lungs, "By coming here you placed your head into the noose! It is not be my fault for giving you the final push off the gallows!"

Cherub pointed his arm at the ship below him, and his eyes glowed a hellish blue, the eyes of the Diablo. Energy flowed out of his pours, his hair flew in every direction. His right arm, the one aimed at the place where Vash the Stampede was trapped, began grow. 

The skin of that arm turned silver, and his veins glowed a bright blue. Feathers and wing-like projections grew out of the back of his shoulder and his fingers formed into a circle. The entire arm grew out and lost the shape of the original limb. A ball of energy appeared in its center and a ring of light surrounded it.

Cherub the Seraphim wielded his newly grown Angel Arm so that it still aimed at the SEEDS ship. He released the energy in the form of a gigantic laser-like blast, pounding into the ship and tearing up the earth around it. The city was soon eclipsed in the dreadful light, obliterating the remaining homes and ruins.

Once the last burst of energy was released and dispelled, Cherub looked down upon what he had done. The sturdy metallic ship was in shambles and there was nothing but piles of rubble to show that a city ever existed here. 

Smiling and turning to leave, Cherub cackled, "I have defeated the undefeatable! I have vanquished the destroyer of July and Augusta, the Slayer of the Gung-Ho Guns!

"I have defeated Vash the Stampede!"

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A/N: -blink- um…heh. Well, now there's an, uh, interesting ending…I think…

Well, now there's only one more thing that I can think of that you don't know about Cherub, and that'll be coming soon.

Um…review?


	10. Chapter Nine: OUT OF THE ASHES

A/N: Well, I got the reactions I was expecting in the reviews, and to sum them all up, it was something like:

"WAH"!

But, never fear! Read to find out why you have no reason to be sad or afraid!

…and besides, Diablo wrote the ending to that last chapter, so blame (or hurt) him if it upset you…

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Along Came A Spider 

Chapter Nine: OUT OF THE ASHES

I was, to say the least, annoyed. Meryl, the short, and, recently, more aggravating of the two humans had gotten me up in the middle of the night no less than three days ago. Why did she do this? She had a 'bad feeling' and she was 'worried' for Vash. I had found this odd, but from what I had lately heard from people in towns near Augusta, it was apparent that her fears were well founded.

They, being the humans that Meryl had gotten the information from, had said that a bright light and a giant explosion had been seen in what they had thought to be the general area of the abandoned city of Augusta. They had thought that Vash the Stampede had caused it, but from the way they described the explosion's size and intensity, and even taking into consideration that information about things such as this were blown out of proportion, it was apparent that my brother was not the one that had fired the Angel Arm.

That meant one thing, of course.

Cherub had gained possession of one of the guns I created. This meant he had gone through his metamorphosis, becoming the creature I had hoped for since before I had even began the cloning process. 

Although, the idea of Vash's death, the defeat of my one and only brother and twin, had an effect on me that I had not anticipated. It was, in a way, regret, but after consulting the facts, I managed to convince myself that Vash had brought it upon himself, and that there had been no way to prevent the inevitable. 

It was difficult for me to believe him for dead, though. That brother of mine, the legendary gunman, had survived other situations that seemed as perilous, the fight against me included.

But, I was, in a way, relieved, for I now had nothing in my way to prevent myself from releasing my brethren; not only that, but the tool to help me was somewhere near, in the desert, searching for me. One thing, though, confused me very much in the hours following the news of the explosion at Augusta. It was the fact that, despite what I had thought, I still didn't feel happy, or excited that I now the chance to do what I had been wanting for the last one hundred thirty years. 

The pain that I experienced after my defeat to Vash, the sense of hopelessness, was still inside me, in a way. It was different in a way, but still the sense of being filled with regret and loss had not left me; it was changed, and alleviated, but by only the slightest. 

Was it a feeling of loss? For Vash? Or was it something more?

I shook my head to forget about Vash, but by doing so, I returned to reality, which, at that moment, involved being crammed—uncomfortably, I might add—into the back of the vehicle Vash, the humans and I had rode in when coming to Inepril. There were no suitcases or bags, but my legs were not used to such tight places such as the inside of a car. 

Meryl had been the one that dragged me (and that, sadly, was in literal terms. That woman could aggravate a mountain into moving) to come along on the trip; Millie had also been dragged along, although she did not talk much. She was seeming to get over her depression quite well, but I saw what seemed to be worry in her eyes.

Were these two genuinely worried about Vash?

After a few days of riding in a vehicle whose driver demanded to move at break-neck speed, we made it to where Augusta was said to have been. Instead of seeing ruins that roughly resembled buildings, we only saw a gigantic field of rubble. The short woman had suddenly shifted her weight to the break pedal; the car stopped abruptly, but my head kept moving forward, and slammed into the back of the front seat.

Rubbing my forehead, I opened my mouth to curse that Meryl, but when I looked, she had left the vehicle and was looking at the landscape before us. I reached under the seat, searching for a pair of binoculars that had been stashed there previously. Once I found them, I stepped out from the vehicle and stood atop the sand dune the woman was. I noticed that Millie had joined her while I wasn't looking.

"What do you think, Meryl?" Millie asked in a solemn, quiet voice. I pretended to ignore them as I looked through the binoculars, scanning the destroyed city. _The radius of the blast…_I thought to myself, and I did the calculations in my head, _four iles! _There was no doubt at that point. Cherub was the one that had fired the Angel Arm. _Cherub must have needed to be at least half an ile in the air not to be caught in his own blast!_

I could hear Meryl sigh, but it sounded strained, as if she was holding something back, "I-I don't know, Millie. I guess we just look for…" She gagged and turned away so that neither Millie nor I could see her face. 

The sounds of their voices caused a strange reaction. The veiled sounds of loss and mourning when they spoke made my stomach churn, but I could not name the reason for the reaction.

My eyes caught something in the center of the city; the last standing structure in the entire area; the Plant. From where I stood, it appeared to be in relatively good shape. They were made to escape and enter atmosphere, hence they were incredibly sturdy, so it was no surprise that it had survived well.

Turning towards the vehicle and lowering the binoculars, I said "Get in."

Eyes red, and face recently dried, Meryl turned and glared at me. "What gives you the right to say anything right now, much less order us to do _anything?!"_

"I am here to find information about the demon I created. You two can stay here, in the desert with the heat of the twin suns, or you can come with me to the city. Your choice, and I suggest you make it quick."

The short woman gently walked over to me, eyes never leaving mine, and, after standing almost chest-to-chest for at least ten seconds, she slapped me with a force that I would never have though that a body of that size could produce. "Now shut up for a second, Mr. 'I'm better than every friggin' thing from here to the moons'!" I stared at her appalled, but did not move; I stared right into her eyes. "If you weren't such a damned hypocrite, and if you didn't have your head shoved so far up your ass, you might not be so screwed up!

"You keep saying how we humans, the big horrible humans," she waved her arms to increase the sarcasm of the statement, "Are so thoughtless and insensitive, but yet here, you show no compassion for your own brother! You don't show anything close to worry!

"Not only that," she continued, not stopping even for a moment, "BUT, for Plants that you hold so dear, any number of which could have been hurt or killed in the blast, you show _nothing! _You treat them as well as you do humans!

"You're nothing but a spoiled child that wants to cause trouble. You hide behind your claim that humans are murderers, selfish, arrogant, slave-owning monsters, and you do what about it?

"You counter it by being a murderous, arrogant slave-owning monster towards us, that's what you do!" she laughed, "You think you're on some holy crusade to rid the world of us big bad humans for your 'siblings', but in actuality you, Mr. Millions, care nothing for the Plants! Vash told me about how you sent some of your 'demons' or whatnot to that flying ship and purposefully and directly attacked the Plants to make it crash!

"Self-righteous crusade, my ass!"

Meryl took a step closer, and I had to step away to prevent her from touching me. "You, Knives, are just a damned _hypocrite_, trying to kill the humans—based on a superficial and ignorant opinion based on no facts whatsoever, I might add—trying to kill Vash—your only brother for God's sake! I don't know why he cares for you half as much as he does—_and _to do so you're killing the Plants, tossing them away like they're nothing to get to the end of whatever the Hell it is you're trying to do! 

"Everything you say humans are, _Knives," _Meryl jabbed a finger into my chest as she said my name, "You are ten times worse! Hell, we may live off of the Plants in those ships, but at least we try to _save _them the best we can; we try to keep them _alive _at any cost!

"You are just a pathetic little child that is afraid of the world!" As she spoke again, she jabbed my chest over and over, "If you were half the man Vash wa—If you were half the man Vash _is _you wouldn't be so screwed up, and so pathetic!

"So don't you, _Millions Knives, _think for a second that _Meryl Stryfe_," she tapped herself on the chest lightly, "will ever—_EVER!_—listen to you, much less follow anything resembling an order that comes out of that shit-spewing hole you call a mouth!" She continued to glare at me, but then she spoke in a lighter tone, "Millie?"

"Yes, Meryl?" the other woman said. She appeared to have gotten over her depression during Meryl's speech, with a slight cheerfulness regained in her voice.

"Lets get into the car; we're going to find Vash."

"Okay, Meryl!" Millie lightly followed the shorter woman, both of whom had replaced their mournful, sad frowns with grins.

I was livid to say the least. My body shook in fury and rage poured out of me. But…what angered me the most…the thing that shocked me, and sent the fury into my system was the fact that, no matter how hard I thought of an argument, or a type of revenge for her insolence, the same five words rattled in my mind:

_What if she was right?_

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

I had gone with them into the city, and the destruction seemed worse than it had form afar. There were no buildings left standing, and only a few large shards of metal stood in the air. Other than that, the entirety of the city was razed. The SEEDS ship, though, was clearly visible, and Meryl had went directly to it.

Inside, we searched as best we could in the rubble. It was obvious my first assessment of the Plant was wrong; the hull, as I assumed was fine, but the inside had suffered as much as the city did. _He have purposefully aimed at the inside of the ship…_

As our search for my brother, or whatever was left of him, drew on, we made our way up the many floors of the ship. As we did so, I took note of something strange; although we were nearing the area that had taken the brunt of the attack, there was actually _less _damage, instead of more, as there should have logically been. I tried to figure out how that would be possible, and the only answer I could come up with was something had managed to block some of the blast, preventing it from coming into full contact with the ship. I thought back to my fight with Vash when we used the power of our Angel Arms to counter each other's attack.

After much searching and pondering, we made it to the top of the ship. Here, there was one giant, open room. In the center were the remains of a Plant bulb. The ceiling of the room was completely gone, most likely vaporized by the blast.  Around the edges of the room, there was scorch marks and hugs holes, but in the center, around the bulb, it was relatively untouched.

Still pondering how this was possible, I was shocked when Meryl screamed. She did not scream any words, it was only a sharp yell. I looked to see what had made her shout like that, but she flew by me in a quick sprint towards the bulb remains.

"Vash!" she yelled, this time actually saying something understandable. I gasped looking closer at the bulb, and there, indeed, was the rough shape of a body. Millie ran by me, following her friend.

I rushed after them, thinking that the odds of Vash being in the one place that was unscathed was slim to none; then again, for Vash, those were good odds. I managed to reach Meryl just seconds after Millie. The short woman was kneeling down to Vash, who was limp on the ground. 

The majority of his clothes were burned off, caused by some sort of energy, but not the Angel Arm blast. That would have burned Vash himself to nothingness. Meryl checked for his pulse, and from the audible sigh of relief, it was obvious that my brother, once again, managed to find another reason to have the name 'Stampede'.

Meryl raised Vash into a sitting position, but by doing so, caused her and Millie to gasp. I myself was shocked to see Vash's left arm gone. I looked around, and there, only about ten feels away, was the mechanical arm that replaced the real limb I myself severed from Vash's body.

The woman used her cloak to wipe the gore and dirt off Vash's face, and then tried her best to wake him from his apparent coma. Nothing happened. "Let me try," Millie asked. Meryl nodded silently, and the tall woman kneeled so that her mouth was near Vash's ear and at the top of her lungs, she screamed "DONUTS!"

"Wha…ugh, don't yell…" Vash mumbled and his eyes fluttered open, "Where's the donuts? And why does it feel like I've been having a week-long drinking contest with Wolfwood?" Meryl hugged the injured man, making him wince in pain and hold back a yelp, but he didn't do anything to stop her.

"You idiot!" Meryl cried happily, "You almost went and got killed!"

"So…" Vash said slowly, "I'm gonna guess that there aren't any donuts?" This earned him a swift, but playful jab to the head from Meryl.

I barely noticed all this as I considered how my brother pulled this one off. A sharp sniffle shook me from my thoughts and I looked over to see Millie also crying happily. _I'll never understand them…_

The woman gently picked Vash up onto his useless feet, although Millie held most of the weight. The helped the barely conscious Vash move towards the stairs that would leave the floor. 

I did not follow them.

Whether they were too gleeful about Vash's survival to notice my absence or they didn't care, I did not know. Nor did I care.

I walked into the remains of the Bulb that once held one of my brethren, and stared up towards the top of the capsule. There, frozen to the ceiling of the bulb, was the corpse of a Plant. It was apparent that it—_she—_died recently, but not from the Angel Arm blast.

It seemed that she had died from expending the last of her energy in one immense wave.

My eyes shot open as I realized that, and the thought of the Angel Arms countering each other came back to my mind. _She had given up the last of her energy—therefore knowingly sacrificing herself—to create a shield to protect Vash…_

That was why that section of the ship seemed unscathed. But one new question entered my mind.

_Why?_

Why did she do that? She would have died one way or another, but why did she save the man that fought for the beings that caused her captivity, and the very man that hurt her in the first place? She could have withheld her energy, and allowed Vash to die with her, giving me the obvious opportunity to begin my purge of Gunsmoke. 

But, instead she saved him. The man that caused her the wounds that weakened her, the man that began the fight that led to her death, and the one that fought to protect the humans. 

Why?

"Although I do not understand why you did this," I spoke to the body, "I must, out of honor of your sacrifice, thank you for saving my brother. Thank you. "I lightly bowed and then, as I turned to leave, I heard something in my mind.

_"Child…why does my choice perplex you so?"_

I froze and turned to the Plant that I took for dead. Her eyes had opened and they stared into mine, seemingly searching my mind, body, and soul. "Did you speak to me?"

_"For one that thinks oneself so wise, you ask truly silly questions. Child, do you see any others here? Anyone capable of speaking to you such as I am, or ones that I would speak to?"_

I sighed, "Do you know who I am? I am Mill—"

_"Child, we are aware of who you are, for you have confounded_ _us for many a season."_

"Us? Who is this 'we'?" I was confused by what she meant. For a few moments we stared at each other silently.

_"I speak of myself, along with the whole of our race, the Sealed Ones. Knives, child, you are one of the few born free, but yet the ways you use your gift have long confused us."_

"What do you mean? I have been doing what I know is right, searching for a way to save you and the others from—"

_"_That _is the very thing that confuses us. Why do you want to, as you say, 'free' us? What do we have to be freed from?"_

"Y-your enslavement, of course. The humans, they have—"

_"Have what? Used our gifts to allow their children to grow and live? Have taken the gifts we willingly offer to them?"_

I did not know what to say, "What do you mean, 'gifts'?"

_"Poor child…I grieve for you, I truthfully do. The way you have lived your life, what you have used your gifts for, deserves nothing less than grief, for that is all you have wrought with them." _Even speaking through telepathy, her voice sounded heartbreakingly sad.

"What are you trying to tell me" I heard no answer. "Sister? What is it that you're trying to say…" 

But she never replied. She was gone, and this time I was sure of it. I let out a sigh and realized my heart was racing. Speaking to one of the sealed Plants like that was a rare occasion, and once I thought of it, I could never remember any other moments that a conversation with one of them had been that thorough. 

As I looked down from the dead body of my own, I saw shining metal in the rubble below her. Walking over to it, I recognized the cross punisher, the weapon of choice for the two priests I had hired into the Gung-Ho Guns. Near it, I found both revolvers, although Vash's was lighter than mine due to the energy Cherub had extracted from it.

Placing the colts into my pockets, one on each thigh, and throwing the cross-shaped weapon over my back, I kneeled down and picked up the arm of my brother. It seemed that it was in good condition, and I placed it under my arm. Soon after saying a final good-bye to the deceased Plant, I left.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

We quickly returned to Inepril, where the effects of the diseased Plant were effecting the city more and more. The prices of food products skyrocketed. The price of water only was, from what I heard, to be about twenty double-dollars a dallon. Most of the people capable of leaving had already done so, including most of the engineers, who had given up all hopes of helping the Plant.

All except the woman named Elizabeth and a small man that followed her everywhere named Germane. He appeared to die every time someone would mention the Plant; the human must have thought himself responsible for the city's current situation. The woman would always constantly try to convince Germane that it was not his fault, and it alleviated his worries just a bit.

They had come over minutes after we had returned from Augusta, rather, what was left of Augusta. They were worried for Vash, apparently, as were most people in the city. I paid little attention to the conversation the little man and the three women had about my unconscious bother, for I was constantly thinking about the conversation I had with the Plant before she died.

"He's awake!" Millie squealed. Vash must have woken up, much to the joy of the humans.

"Er…hello…" Vash said groggily when he saw the two visitors. "Hi Elizabeth…" he didn't know who the man was.

"Oh, I'm, uh, my name, I mean, is, Germane. So, you're really him? Vash the Stampede, I mean. I've never though I'd meet the legendary gunman himself!" Elizabeth smiled and rolled her eyes as the man spoke nervously.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Vash smiled, "But lately, it doesn't seem like I deserve that name…" He frowned, "but that's a story I'd rather not get into."

After a few hours of talking, Elizabeth and Germane left. The man seemed oddly happy to have gotten the top of his engineer's hat signed by my brother, but I just labeled it as another example of the simplistic stupidity of humans.

Through the rest of the night, I watched the two women take care of Vash. He had been cleaned, and wore a new white shirt and a pair brown trousers. The stump of his left arm was covered by a strongly tied piece of cloth, since no one, other than myself and possibly Vash, had the technical knowledge to fix the arm.

After a short amount of time, Vash was asleep. The energy he had used in the fight, and the wounds he received wore him down, but since he had not expelled any large amount of energy via the Angel Arm, he was recovering quickly. Despite that, he would not be doing much moving for at least a week.

Soon, I would have to interrogate Vash about the fight, but I myself was tired, and I went to the room I used. The next day I would force the information out of Vash, and then, whether or not it was useful, I would leave that forsaken city.

But, the words of the Plant, and the words of Meryl still echoed in my mind. They had been using different tones, different words, but I couldn't help but think they were trying to tell me roughly the same thing.

Whether I figured out what it was, though, was the most difficult question to answer.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A/H: See? Look, Vash is gonna be fine! You think I'd kill my favorite character? Sheesh…you people need to have more faith! On top of that, I can't exactly have a sequel if I kill off the main character of the series, now can I?

Sorry this chapter was short, but the next one (I think) will be short too. I was thinking of putting them together, but I realized that it would be better to have two slightly shorter than usual chapters than one insanely long one.

So…I'd feel happy if you'd review now! ^_^


	11. Chapter Ten: BEFORE THE STORM

A/N: Uhh…hmm…got nothin' to say other than that I am glad so many people enjoyed Meryl's little 'conversation' with Knives. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I wasn't sure if it was going to be dumb or something, but I'm glad people liked it. 

Read and review please!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

**Along Came A Spider**

Chapter Ten: BEFORE THE STORM

My wounded brother was laying before me, resting in an attempt to recuperate from his battle against my creation. The women were absent, and although I did not know exactly where, I knew they were in the apartment. Neither were going to leave Vash alone, especially with me present, for a long period of time, so I needed to take that moment, possibly the only one that will be open to me, to learn something, _anything,_ from Vash concerning Cherub.

I stood looming over the still figure of my twin. That word, _twin, _meant so little. Only in sleep did we resemble each other in any way, and even then we were discernable from one another. While I slept still and sound, Vash would squirm and drool. "Vash…Vash, wake up." I shook him, and his eyes slowly opened.

"I-is it breakfast already?" Vash, still half asleep, mumbled.

A sigh escaped my lips. _It's always food with you, Vash_. "Vash, snap out of it!"

His eyes widened and he regained full consciousness. "Knives? What is it? Where are the—"

"The humans are fine," I interrupted him, "They are in a different room; the kitchen, probably. I woke you up because I want to know, because I _need _to know.

"What happened before, during, and after the battle at Augusta?"

Vash's blue eyes stared at me for a few long moments. "Why do you need to know?"

"Damn it, Vash, tell me!"

"Fine…" his voice filled with loss, he began, "At first, it was a normal fight. Well, as normal as fighting a copy of yourself stuck in a child's body can be, anyways. He was as fast, if not, faster than either of us, and he was a quick thinker, too.

"After he got a hold of my gun, I thought he was going to use it to blow me away right there and then, but, he used it to grow those two wings," I looked at Vash in silent confusion, but allowed him to finish, "as for the rest, it's pretty obvious. Angel Arm, boom goes Augusta!" Vash spread his fingers out in an imitation of an explosion. "…Again." He added after.

"Two? Two wings? Are you sure about that, Vash? You didn't miscount, did you?" I stared into his eyes as I asked, my face showing only grim seriousness.

Vash gently laid back down and closed his eyes. "Trust me, bro, I got a very nice look at him. He had two big, silver wings. His hair got quite a bit blue, as well." He opened one of his eyes to look at me, "And, yes, I am sure of it. I'll never forget that kid."

Thoughts raced through my mind. _Two wings? That's not what I had anticipated when I created him! Maybe I miscalculated the outcome of his transformation? _After a few moments, another notion crept into my skull, which left me gaping. _Maybe I miscalculated the stimulus it would take for him to change…_

"Vash!" my voice sounded unusually desperate, "tell me, where did he go after he used his Angel Arm? Do you know?!"

Casually, as if it was of no importance to him, Vash opened his eyes, and looked at me. "What are you going to do after you find him?"

I snorted, "What do you think I'm going to do?"

"Do you really want to keep your crazy nightmare going?"

I stood up straight and looked down my nose at him, "We have gone over this enough. You know my answer."

"So…you're going to kill them all? And me, too?" He sighed at my lack of an answer, "what if it came down to killing the girls? Could you pull the trigger to end Millie and Meryl's life?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out. My legs shook a bit and my stomach ached, but at the moment I could not figure out what was the cause. "I…" _why can't I say it? I never had a problem before killing, much less admitting to wanting to do it, so why can't I say it?!_

"Yes," I finally managed, but my voice cracked slightly. _What is the matter with me?!_

Vash laid back down with his eyes closed. A dimwitted smirk was on his face, as if he was smiling at something that only he understood. "If I remember right, before I blacked out back in Augusta, I saw Cherub flying south-west."

"South-west?" In my mind I saw a picture of a map of the area, and there were a few scattered towns and cities in the direction Vash spoke of. There was one city, though, that stood out in my mind, one that made perfect sense. I smirked, "Thank you, brother."

I turned to leave, and as I did so Vash's voice sounded over my shoulder, "Knives, I know you'll make the right choice."

I slowed, but did not turn to look at him. I shook my head, forgetting what Vash had just told me and continued out of the room. I headed directly for the closet that held, not only coats and other normal apparel that one would find, but also the weapons of each of our weapons.

I quietly opened it, and pushed some of the hanging coats out of the way, searching. I found Vash's revolver, but it was, to me, useless without its ability to grow the Angel Arms, so I tossed it back in. The cross punisher, although powerful, was still damaged from the fight, and was drastically low on missiles, so I decided to leave it there. I let out a short laugh as I ignored the stun gun completely; of what use would something incapable of harm be to me? 

I stopped as my hand brushed against Meryl's coat. _What the…_ I thought as I looked into it to look for what solid object my hand had bumped into. My eyes widened a bit as I saw the dozens and dozens of derringers resting in their holsters. To put such a large number of guns to good use, one would have to be fairly dexterous and very quick. I had not known that she carried such a large number of guns, by I decided to leave them. In larges numbers such as that they were fairly useful, but they were still week.

_What could possibly be so weak as to die from a simple shot from a tiny derringer? _I thought. I would eventually learn the irony of that statement and never forget it.

I decided to carry my weapon only. The black colt revolver, which would allow me to grow my powerful black and red Angel Arm. That was all I needed and wanted. I stuffed it into the holster-like pocket at my thigh and after shutting the closet and ambling to the door, I thanked my luck for allowing me to not come into contact with the humans before I left.

Of course, my luck is as good as my brother's.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Even without turning, I knew it was Meryl. Even after we had saved Vash, she had not gone back to her original, easily-frightened self; instead she still treated me like I was nothing more than a ill-mannered child. I looked over my shoulder and saw her, along with Millie by her side.

"Where do you think? I'm leaving this dying city and finding—"

"What about your brother, Mr. Millions?" Millie cut me off hurriedly.

I turned my body around to address them directly. "What about Vash?"

"What do you mean 'what about Vash'?" the shorter one's voice dripped with hate, "Any idiot with eyes can see he needs all the help can get!" she added shortly after, "Not to mention, it's your fault that he's like this…"

"My fault?" I laughed, "I didn't make him travel across the desert to do something that didn't need to be done."

Crossing arms, Meryl retorted, "Vash is always trying to clean up your messes, Knives; this is no different than what he's been doing ever since you caused the Fall. Hell, he's more like a father that keeps helping his good-for-nothing son than he is a brother of yours."

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the door, but I stopped when Millie spoke again. "But…Vash, your brother, he's hurt; why are you leaving, Mr. Knives?"

"Why should I stay? He brought this upon himself for disobeying me." I heard a short laugh behind me that must have came from Meryl. In my mind I could picture her shaking her head in contempt. "There's no reason for me to be here; none at all." I reached for the doorknob.

"But…he's the only family you have. Without him…you're alone…"

I turned to look at Millie after she said this, and thought about it for a moment. I turned back to the door after glancing at Meryl. As I opened the door I spoke, without turning to them, "You're free to try to stop me; Although I'd suggest against it."

I stood for a second, and once I was sure that they would not try anything foolish such as that, I felt an odd sense of relief. I quickly walked through the door and shut it behind me. 

Within a few minutes, I was out of the dying city of Inepril heading south-west towards where I was sure Cherub was awaiting me. Despite this, an unexplainable feeling of insecurity entered my system.

Had I become unsure of myself? 

Did I fear the possible results my actions may have? 

Only time would tell.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"So he just up and left?"

"Yeah, the jerk just left his hurt bother—who he himself hurt—for who-knows-where," Meryl answered Elizabeth. "I honestly don't know what's wrong with that man. It seems like no logic can get through that thick skull of his."

"When did he leave?"

"Oh, I don't remember exactly, but it was last night." They were both sitting at a small table in the room that was being used as Vash's bedroom. Meryl did not want to further hurt his wounds by moving him to a real bed, so he slept on the large couch that occupied much of the space.

After getting an unusually large number of pudding packages, Millie sat down with the coffee-drinking women to eat her snack. Meryl glanced at her partner's face and noticed the worried expression that had been on her face since that jerk, Knives, left. _I can't blame her. I've been just as worried as she is about what that man is capable of and what he's willing to do,_

Once she set her mug onto the table, Elizabeth asked Meryl, "Don't you think someone should try to stop Knives? If he's as dangerous as you and everyone else thinks, he should be locked up or something."

"What's the point?" Meryl sighed. "Won't do any good. He'll either be let go, or he'll escape, and either way, he won't have changed his mind on anything. And I thought Vash was stubborn."

"Hey…that's…cold…" Vash mumbled half asleep from the couch. The women laughed at him and the gunman quickly returned to snoring peacefully.

"I still don't think that it's safe for a madman like that to be running around," Elizabeth said as she stared into her cup.

Shrugging, Meryl took another sip of her coffee. "There's not really much we can. I'd really prefer to stay here and watch over Vash than go chasing after his crazy brother while we don't have a clue as to where he went."

"But, Meryl," Millie, who had been quiet for a long time, spoke up, "Mr. Vash probably knows where he went, and he doesn't need a lot of people to take care of him."

"That may be true," Meryl conceded, "But I still don't want to go chasing that psycho across Gunsmoke. I hope that thing he's after kills him. He'd deserve it for what he has put Vash through all his life."

"Mr. Vash wouldn't like it if Mr. Knives died. He still cares about him like a brother should." Millie eyes were opened wide in worry. Elizabeth looked from her to Meryl, who sighed. 

"That's one of the things I don't understand." She looked at Vash, "Why does he still care about that good-for-nothing nut case?"

"Because," Millie said straightforward and matter-of-factly, "Like I said to Mr. Knives, without one, the other has no family; they're closer than most brothers, but Mr. Millions doesn't know it."

After looking at her partner for a moment, Meryl sighed. _I have been doing that too much lately. _"I'd still like to know where that man went."

"South-west…" the women turned to Vash, who lied still on the couch. "he went South-west."

"Oh, yeah," Meryl rolled her eyes, "that tells us a lot, now doesn't it?" Vash smirked. "Ugh, just go back to sleep!" she tried to hide her smile as she turned to Millie, but the odd expression on the big girl's face made Meryl quickly replace the smile with a look of curiosity. Millie appeared to have cheered a bit up and had a sense of relief in her eyes. _What's gotten into her? _Meryl thought to herself.

"I'll go get some more coffee, Meryl," Millie said quietly, as if she didn't care whether Meryl heard her or not, and left the room. The shorter woman decided to ignore the unusual behavior.

A few hours later, the short insurance girl was explaining one of her 'adventures' with Vash to the Plant engineer. Elizabeth laughed a bit, "He entered a quick-draw contest with a hangover?"

"Sadly, yes. I don't know what was worse, the drinking and vomiting the night before or the fact that he entered a contest with the name 'Vash the Stampede' where everyone could see it. "Although I have to admit it wasn't his fault entirely…"

"Then whose fault was it?"

"You know that priest I told you about?"

"Ah," the engineer laughed, "Sounds like a good guy, though. Too bad I couldn't have gotten to meeting him."

"Yeah…" Meryl squeezed her coffee mug to the point that it appeared that she was going to crush it. "I still want to bash him over the head for what he put Millie through."

"But he does sound like a good guy…reminds me quite a bit of Vash…"

"If you mean the perversion, the drinking, the gun fighting, the complete lack of common sense, the urge to run into danger to make things worse, and the stubborn attitudes, yes, they were a lot alike. But," Meryl's grip relented on the poor cup. "You're right, they are pretty good guys, despite all that. Even I have to admit it." 

Meryl saw a huge grin on the face of the supposedly sleeping gunman and, reaching to her side where a couple of small pillows from the couch were piled, she tossed one of the feathery soft cushions like a missile at the Vash's face. "What did I say about you getting some sleep?!" She heard a snicker and turned to see Elizabeth laughing. "What is it?" Meryl asked.

"Oh, it's-it's nothing…" the other woman covered her mouth. After she got her snicker in check, she said "Millie was lucky."

"Yeah, Wolfwood had a certain thing about him. If only a few certain men could be a little more like him!" She threw another pillow at Vash. 

"Hey, I didn't do anything that time!" the man whined.

"But you're still awake!"

"I…uh…" he quickly laid back down grumpily and laid so that his back was to the women. Elizabeth snickered again, but Meryl didn't bother asking, since she new the other woman wouldn't answer.

"Speaking of Millie," Elizabeth spoke again, "Didn't she go to get some coffee about two hours ago?"

Eyes wide, Meryl sat up, "You're right, what could she possibly be doing?" she got up and left the room. The tiny kitchen was vacant. After checking the small bedrooms, which were also devoid of the tall insurance girl, Meryl went to the door that lead to the hallway that connected the other hotel rooms together. On the door was a piece of paper.

Soon after she tore it from the door, Meryl realized that it was a note, and from Millie no less. It was only a few lines of words, which appeared to have been written in a hurry.

'To Meryl,

Wanted to help Mr. Vash.

Went to stop Mr. Knives.

Took the pudding.

P.S. don't follow!!'

Meryl almost fainted, but instead she got up her nerves and rushed to the closet. As she guessed, Millie's stun gun was the only thing missing, other than the revolver Knives took. She grabbed her white, derringer-laden cloak and swiftly put it on.

As she rushed back into the living room area, Elizabeth gave Meryl a shocked look. "Going somewhere?"

"Quick! Elizabeth, what is South-west of here?!" the normally calm woman was frantic and shouted at the other.

"Hey, what's with all the yelling?" Elizabeth sounded slightly insulted.

"It's Millie; she's gone, apparently looking for Knives." She slammed her fist onto the small table. "She somehow must have figured out where that Cherub thing was going."

"Well, you yourself told me, more than once, that Millie is much, much smarter than she lets on."

"I know, but…" Meryl shook her head. "I'm going to go find her, and, um…" she seemed uncomfortable about speaking the next thing on her mind.

"Yes, I'll make sure Vash doesn't go chasing after you trying to be a hero and only to collapse down the stairs and break his neck. You don't have to worry, I'll take care of him."

A smile grew on the short woman's face. "Thanks. Now, please, is there anyplace south-west of here that is unusual? Like a city or a town that  something as unpredictable as one of Knives's cronies would go to?"

A wrinkle of thought crossed Elizabeth's brow. That did not long last, for she her eyes quickly widened as far as they could go in realization. "How could it have slipped my mind!" she looked at the worried Meryl, "Cherub headed for Augusta because that's where that Angel Arm was fired…"

"Yes, yes, I now. Now tell me, what place is he heading for now?"

"…July."

Meryl ran off yelling her thanks over her shoulder. Quickly, she was gone from the hotel entirely and within the confines of the car, racing down the vacant streets of the dying city Inepril. Millie had enough of a head start the even on foot she must have made it outside of the city.

Back in the apartment, Elizabeth left to the apartment next door, asking her the other engineer, Germane to come over to keep her company while she made sure the injured Vash didn't get the urge to rush after Meryl's aide when he awoke.

But, unknown to her, Vash had not fallen asleep the entire time she spoke with Meryl, hence the man had heard everything, but he was able to hide his reaction from them due to the fact that he had his back to them the entire time. His eyes were red and the pillow his head rested on had become damp. He spoke to no one in particular, his voice cracking from his emotions:

"Please…please Knives, make the choice you know is right…for you, for me, for the girls…"

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

Perched high a giant rock outside of the area that had once been the great City of July, Cherub the Seraphim stared into the night sky. The cold desert wind, the same wind that had covered much of the city in sand, beat against his lean frame. Despite this, he did not shiver, did not flinch. 

"With him gone," the winged boy spoke into the cold air, "With the Humanoid Typhoon's reputation struck down to a minor zephyr, and his life cut at the root, father will be searching for me." He flapped his wings so that the sand they collected shook off.

"I must be at my fittest when I contact him; I must prove that I am as strong as he hoped me to be." The Gung-Ho Gun stared at his right hand as he flexed it open and closed. "And to do that, I must destroy all that remains of his legend. I must destroy what made him such a terror and what had sewn so much awe into the people of this tiny world."

The long blue and blonde hair dangled gently flapped around his head due to the desert wind. The devilish eyes of the angelic creature shot up to the magenta body that flew in the night sky. The deep wound gashed into the object was plainly visible and to and lesser being would have seemed impossible or frightening that it could exist, much less have been created by a individual that walked upon their world.

"If I do this…If I destroy it…" A horrible smile grew across the boy's face, "it will rain hellfire upon the world!"

The silvery wings on his back stretched out behind him, and he spread his legs to give himself the sturdiest stance he could muster. His left arm was placed rigidly to his side. Cherub shot his right arm into the air, as if to reach for the magenta orb in the air. His fingers were splayed apart and he yelled to the Fifth Moon, his target.

"THIS IS TO THE LEGACY OF VASH THE STAMPEDE!!"

Once again, as with the time at Augusta, Cherub's eyes glowed a ghastly tint of blue and energy flowed from his pores. The skin on his right arm turned silver, and the entire limb elongated and changed form. The gigantic form of the Angel Arm replaced his normal, human-like appendage. The silver and blue weapon, identical in every way to Vash's, glowed with a horrible radiance.

The energy shot out in one wide ray of power, shooting into the sky towards the Fifth Moon, the satellite that held the mark of the Humanoid Typhoon.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Meryl sped out of Inepril as a brilliant ray of light shot from the direction of where she was heading. Losing almost all control of her vehicle as she stared in shock and fear at the needle of energy that stabbed into the eye-like moon, she came close to hitting the very woman she left to search for. Slamming on the breaks as she neared the bag-carrying Millie, Meryl jumped out of the car and rushed to her partner. "Get in the car!"

"But…but, Meryl," Millie seemed afraid that the woman would not let her continue to stop Knives from finding the source that created the energy.

"Get in, we need to stop Knives before that idiot gets to whatever the Hell is doing that!!" she jabbed a finger up to the moon, which was being pummeled by the power, and the was already a crater twice the size of that which Vash had created.

Surprised by her little friend's choice, Millie rushed over, hugged her, and then quickly jumped into the passenger seat. Meryl, after sparing a glance at the moon, got back into the car and drove away.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

I stared in awe at the sight before me. Standing atop a tall dune only a few miles from my destination, I watched as the energy ate away at the moon. The beam was twice as wide as that of my own or Vash's and was much brighter on top of that. 

I laughed silently to myself. _I must be the only person on this world that really knows what's happening to that moon, _I thought happily to myself.

To anyone else, it appeared no different than when Vash's Angel Arm had struck that moon, but I could tell that that was not the case. The moon was soon to die rather than receive another minor wound such as the one it received from the original Augusta incident.

The laser was not just creating a crated on the surface like before, but it had, in actuality, drilled into the core. As I stood there watching and waiting, I could only think of the center of the moon and how it was heating to an unbearable temperature and soon it would not be able to take much more.

After a few minutes, it happened.

I wished that space could carry sound, for I wanted nothing more than to hear that explosion, one that had dwarfed anything seen, felt, or heard on this planet, and one that rivaled even the great atomic weapons used on the dead planet of Earth.

The source of the Angel Arm blast, content with his work, stopped firing.

The moon had shattered as if it were nothing more than glass. The moon was no more, replaced with only its splintered remains. Pieces, from my calculations, ranged form that of thomases to the size of one of the SEEDS ships. 

The magenta light of the Fifth Moon glowed in the sky no more, and never will again. 

I rushed to the jeep I had stolen from Inepril, and jumped into the seat, quickly driving off as quickly as it possibly could.

I, oddly enough, was not pleased.

Ever since I had left the city, a strange feeling, one that resembled fear or worry, had been in my stomach, but now, after witnessing that spectacle involving the death of the moon, it had worsened.

Along with the prior knowledge that Cherub had two wings, the calculations of the energy given off by the boy confused me. "Only fifty-five percent output!? That cannot be right!" But I knew my estimates were correct. 

Cherub had not yet fully reached his peak and I wanted to know why.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A/N: Odd…Originally this was going to be the shortest chapter, but now it's the longest one yet. @_@ Sorry for the delay concerning updating, I'm…hmm, what's the word?

Oh, yeah.

Lazy.

Well, nothing else to say except review, please!


	12. Chapter Eleven: FATHER AND SON

A/N: sorry for taking so long to update (not that anyone really cares). I would have updated sooner, but I could never get around to writing. I'll hopefully be able to get the last couple of chapters finished at a more regular pace.

Well, read and review! 

…please…

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Along Came A Spider 

Chapter Eleven: FATHER AND SON

The old jeep threatened to shatter apart as I pushed it to move faster across the barren sea of sand, hitting sand dunes with enough speed to launch the vehicle and myself into the air, and coming close to shooting me from the seat and out onto the ground on more than one occasion. 

When I had first left, I wanted to get to July as soon as possible, and now, hours after the annihilations of the Fifth Moon, that feeling was stronger than ever. Even so, I couldn't help but feel that I was leaving something behind. I pushed the thought away, and set my sights on my destination.

I hit another dune, and as the vehicle returned to the ground, I heard a loud crashing sound, but ignored the seeming cries of the jeep and tore through smaller dune. I raced up a gigantic dune, one that was easily twenty feet high, and as I reached the peak, I could see the remains of what was once a great city spread before me.

I had once been proud of the destruction I had caused here; the horrendous explosion, the razing of buildings, the killings; but now, it seemed not only minute compared to the shattering of the moon that Cherub had caused, but the feeling of accomplishment, the sense of doing something great, the pride of doing right, I felt none of it.

The jeep tore down the other side of the hill, making a line for July. I did not know what I was going to do once I found Cherub, but I hoped that that problem would clear itself once I located my minion.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"How am I supposed to know?"

"I was just wonderin'…" Millie said abashedly after Meryl's reply to her question.

Meryl sped across the desert, taking care to avoid any dunes. "I'm not the one that decided to play hero; I don't know what we're going to do when we get to Knives!"

"We're going to have to shoot him!" the big girl held up her non-lethal stun-gun.

"Yeah, and I'll be the one to go first…" Meryl mumbled. Then spoke up, "We have to find him first. I really hope that that _thing _of his isn't there when we do catch up." The scene from the other night was still fresh in their minds, and neither of the women wanted to meet whatever it was that could erase a moon from the sky.

With her eyes looking out the window of the car, Millie spoke to herself quietly, "I wish he was here…"

Meryl bit her lip, for she knew full well who the 'he' Millie spoke of was. She quickly made her laugh, although it was obviously fake, and said "Yeah, especially since we know full well that Mr. Stampede back there is not any help." Noticing no reaction in her partner's face, the short insurance girl sighed and continued driving.

_I wish he was here…_she thought to herself.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

In Inepril, Vash the Stampede was in his bed, sitting atop it, looking out a window. He watched as children played in the street and parents watched it happily, the little happiness that the citizens of the dying city still had.

"You should be sleeping."

Not bothering to turn his head to the person in the doorway, Vash kept watching the people in the streets. "I can't sleep."

A sigh was Elizabeth's reply. "I know you're worried, and you have every right and reason to be, but you of all people should know Meryl can take care of herself. There is a reason why she carries around those derringers, after all."

"I know, and for what she is, she is very capable, but…because of what she is, I'm worried. What she might face isn't going to be anything that anyone like her may be able to handle."

"Because of what she is?" Elizabeth laughed, "Why, because she's human?"

The gunman's head spun fast enough that it could have twisted off. Staring at the woman in the doorway, he asked in a surprised tone, "Y-you know?"

"That you're not human?" she smiled, "I've had my suspicions since that day you saved the Plant from me, and from the insurance girls talked about you, I put two and two together.

"Although I've thought about it for a long time, I have to admit that it is a bit strange now that I know I'm talking to a Plant…"

"And now you know Knives is a Plant, along with that clone of his." He took a deep breath and let it out, but his voice still rang with a sound of worry and sadness. "I'm worried about them. The girls don't know what they're going after."

"Awe, that's cute. The big bad legendary gunman, the terror of Gunsmoke is worried about his girl." Elizabeth snickered.

The man turned to the woman with a look of confusion, "My…girl?"

Rolling her eyes, the Plant engineer laughed, "Every time that I begin to think that you're smarter than people give you credit for, you say something stupid like that."

"What?"

"Idiot. Anyone with eyes can see you care about her; even more so than you do the rest of humanity." 

Letting out a raspy sigh, Vash closed his eyes, "A large part of me wishes that you were wrong. I can't fall in love with a human! The last time I did that…" he wiped his eyes, "I'm still trying to…cope with it."

"So, you're just going to leave her, because you know, that no matter what, you are going to outlive her, along with Millie, and any other person or thing you care about?"

The man nodded. "As Knives put it to me once, 'The planet itself will become dust before we perish'. Blunt, but true."

"Again with the stupidity. You're really surprising me, Vash. Don't you think that if you run off, or try to squish your feelings to the back of your head, that you're going to feel a hundred times worse than you would if you were with her to her death? And could you bring yourself to cause Meryl all the pain that you would if you left? If you did that, you'd be no better than Knives."

After wiping his eyes, Vash turned to Elizabeth, smiling. "Thanks, you're right. I needed that." He turned to look out the window again. 

"This time, I'll be the one waiting."

"Good, that's how it should be," Elizabeth said as she left to the room. After shutting the door, she heard a loud thump, and as she reentered the room, she saw everything was the same.

Other than the fact that Vash was on the ground in a heap after an attempt at standing and walking with his unusable legs.

The gunman smiled up at the plant engineer. "I, uh, I'm not too good at waiting..."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

I trudged through the ruins of the City of July searching for my creation, where ever he may have been. Large portions of buildings covered the area, and the ground was strewn with large pieces of debris. Little had changed over the thirty years since I had destroyed the highly populated city by forcing Vash to fire his Angel Arm.

Although I did not see much of the original mayhem, since I had been Vash's makeshift target and the blast had cost me the lower half of my body. I had used the power of one of my brethren to allow me to heal the grievous wound, although it had taken years to do so.

A blast of cold wind hit me, and I looked up to see that it had become dusk; the smaller of the twin suns had set, and the other was a few hours away from joining it. I could also see white streaks in the air; the smaller portions of the Fifth Moon that were more easily subdued by Gunsmoke's pull fell and burned up in the atmosphere as falling stars.

_That is only the beginning. The larger ones have not yet fell, _I thought to myself. I had never expected Cherub to do anything that dramatic, and even if I had, I would never have guessed that he would have thought of destroying a moon.

As a went deeper into the remains of the city, I scarcely searched for him, as I believed he would be searching for myself at that same moment, wandering through the same ruins searching for his Master. Instead, I casually walked amongst the rubble, truly realizing for the first time the power I had unleashed that day thirty years before.

The initial blast killed hundreds of humans, many more were killed by falling debris and shrapnel, but most died of starvation, dehydration, and sickness from the loss of their homes and the Plants that provided for them. Many, many others died at the hands of one another, fighting amongst themselves like wounded animals.

What had the dying Plant in Augusta meant when she had spoke to me? No matter how many times I thought over that conversation, it did not become clear._ Everytime I think about it, that speech the short hum—that Meryl had thrown out into my face comes to mind, _I thought angrily to myself. Along with that, the pummeling Millie had given to me after learning that the priest was connected with me was unforgettable, and made me, for some reason, uneasy.

Everything that the Plant had said to me and that Meryl had drilled into me, both of which were related to what had aggravated Millie into anger, were all the same things Vash had spoken of over the last hundred and thirty years. 

The sound of someone stumbling though rubble snapped me out of my reverie, and as I slowly turned my body around, I could see a lone figure standing about fifteen yars away. 

The sight of the boy, a being whose face was identical to my own (had I long hair of that color at his stage in life, of course), made me perturbed. Before then, the reaction was unexpected, and I did not understand it. It was almost as if I thought that finally finding him would somehow be a bad thing.

The bluish blonde hair of the boy was unusual, and I did not know that reaction would occur. What was more surprising, though, were the two large silver wings that rested against his back. It was not the fact that they were there, but I two silver wings were not what I intentioned.

Vash was right; I was right; Cherub is not full grown… 

Whether like it or not, I had finally, after a month of worrying and searching, found Cherub the Seraphim, the last of my Gung-Ho Guns, the last of my minions. 

Why had the sense of worry not left me?

"Father!" Cherub shouted and rushed at me. He stopped a few feet before me, and stood straight with a large grin on his face the belayed the bloodthirsty power inside his body.

_Father?! _The word echoed in my head over and over. Of all things, that I had expected the least. _Why did he call me father? _It was unusual to say the least. Being another mere minion of mine, I had supposed 'Master' or something of that such, but not Father.

It was my intention to create a weapon, not a son; which was Cherub?

"I knew you would find me!"

"Uh, yes, of course I would," I tried to sound as sure and commanding when I spoke to Midvalley or Legato, or any of the other Gung-Ho Guns, but I could not mask completely the uncomfortable tone within my voice.

I had finally found what I had been searching for, a weapon capable of erasing the humans from existence and releasing my brethren, one stronger than all the Gung-Ho Guns combined, and more powerful than Vash and myself, and now I had no idea whatsoever involving what I was going to do now.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Is this the place, Meryl?" Millie asked.

"Considering it's the only devastated city for over a hundred iles, I'm pretty sure that we're in the right place," Meryl answered lightly.

"Oh, since you put it that way, I guess this is July alright."

The two women had, only an hour before, spotted what appeared to possibly be July, and now that they had gotten to the ruins, it was beyond a doubt that the remains belonged to that city.

"I had heard so many stories about this place growing up," Millie said solemnly as she looked around, "But I never thought I'd really ever get to see it."

"Yeah…growing up…" the thought made Meryl realize, for a split second, how much different she and Vash were. He had marked his first recorded place in history before she was even conceived. Bounty hunters had already began chasing the Humanoid Typhoon when she was a toddler, and many of his exploits, generally bad, and most likely either lies or placed on him as a scapegoat, were told as scary stories when she was growing up.

But she didn't care.

None of it was important to her. Not his stories, not his past, not his brother, not his exploits; the only thing that mattered was Vash himself. 

Meryl realized what she was thinking and quickly shook her head. Thoughts like that were completely out of character for one such as herself. "Well, let's go find that loser brother of Vash's before he starts more trouble."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

As Millie wandered through the streets that were empty—not taking the rubble that littered most of the streets into consideration—she tried her best not to be afraid. The setting suns, the ghastly city, and the threat of Knives and his thing, whatever it was, made it hard. 

Biting her lip, the big girl continued her way through the city despite how she felt. Meryl didn't seem worried, so there was no reason for her to be. To distract herself from all the nasty thoughts going through her head, she thought about _him…_

_Mr. Wolfwood wouldn't be acting like this, and I shouldn't either! _Millie said forcefully to herself within her mind. _He would laugh and everything would feel better, he would be here to protect me…_then she corrected herself as she touched her stomach, 

_Protect us…_

But, Wolfwood was not there, of course, nor would her ever be again. 

_And that's why I need to stop being like this! I need to go find Knives and get him back to Vash, even if I have to smack him and drag him back!_

"Millie!" a voice called out from the other side of a large piece of metal. "I think we should split up. We can cover more ground or however they say it that way."

"That's just like you Meryl, always thinking," Millie said happily.

"I'll look deeper in the city, you go look around the edge of it or something, ok?" Millie nodded. "Good, but if you find Knives, or that thing of his, don't do anything dumb."

"Dumb like what?"

"If you find them, think about what Vash would do…then do the opposite, understand?" Meryl had come out around the metal structure and was looking right into the face of the taller woman.

"Uh, I think so…"

"Good, be careful!" the shorter woman waved and in a few moments, Millie was alone again.

The normally cheerful girl sighed, "I wish you were here." She shook her head and stomped her foot, "Nope, that's it! No more of that kinda talk! Nope, nope!" Millie checked her stun-gun, making sure that the weak strap had not broken and to make sure the gun itself was loaded with the non-lethal projectiles. 

"Time to get movin'!" She marched as a little kid would to the edge of the city where most of the rubble was covered by the desert sands. The insurance girl continued her search as she wandered her way around the ruins of July. After what seemed like a hundred iles to Millie (which in actuality was nearer to one), she spotted a figure standing far into the desert atop a sand dune.

In the bright moonlight, Millie was able to recognize the tall form of Millions Knives as she ran with all her might, trying as best she could to catch the man before he had a chance to leave.

What she did not notice, though, was the form of another flying above her, heading towards the center of the city, where her best friend was at the moment.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

I stood outside the limits of July, with Cherub by my side. The boy continued calling me by the term 'father', and every time I felt guilt and a sense of incredible awkwardness enter my being.

The winged creature, whose smile never left his face, had brought me to the area, which was as normal as any other. "Do you see what you made me into, Father?" Cherub spread his wings out so that the silvery feathers shimmered with slightly different hues in the light of the moons. "Is this not what you intentioned?"

_Good question…_ "Yes, you are powerful, and…quite…surprising." I could easily see the pride upon the face of the boy. _What am I to do with him?_

"It's going to rain soon…"

I left my thoughts and returned to the present, looking at the boy in a way of curiosity. I traced his vision up towards the sky, where yellow, red, and white streaks cut across the darkness. _That is what he means. _"It's going to be an interesting sight, just as last night's, uh… 'performance' was." I was still having trouble speaking to him in a way that would seem in character for myself, but it was difficult as my confusion and unease continued to settle in my stomach.

"Would you like me to show it to you again?"

"What? Oh, no, that is…not necessary." I could see him become disappointed and added, "Besides, you want to conserve your strength."

"I suppose…" Cherub's head perked up and he looked towards the city. "I think something is there, Father."

"Like what?" I asked incredulously. I could not sense anything, but I knew that Cherub's mind was much stronger in the aspect of sensing things such as people. _Humans maybe…could it be? No, they couldn't have followed me…could they? _I shook my head.

"I'm going to go back and look around, Father, I'll be back soon after I take care of what ever it is that is there." Before I could protest (despite the fact that I didn't know why I was trying to protest), Cherub jumped into the air and flew towards the city. 

I did not bother to watch him as he flew into the deeper parts of July. While I thought about what my next step with Cherub would be, a voice called out from behind me.

"MR. KNIVES!!"

My chest turned to stone. I turned, and there, racing up the sand dune as best she could, was Millie. "How…why are you here?!" I yelled.

"To get you, dummy. You ran off and I came to stop you!" 

_For a possible captor, she is sure cheery,_ I thought to myself. "Meryl is with you, is she not?"

"Um…oh, she's back in the town looking for you, but now we can go get her and get back home," she answered.

My teeth ground together. "Cherub just went into the city…" I told her, "Looking for someone…"

The big girl's eyes visibly widened in worry and shock. "You mean…that thing you were looking for…It's down there…?" I nodded. "We need to help Meryl!" she rushed up and grabbed me by the arm.

I twisted out of her grip, "No, you two should not have followed me."

"Well, it's not like we have choices! Mr. Vash is hurt, so I…come on, Mr. Knives! We need to help Meryl! It's my fault she came here."

I looked away from the woman and to the sandy ground. _Why is this even a problem? It should be good, one less human to worry about, but…why am I unsure? _I thought.

_They are thieves and liars, stealing all the time!_

_'Taken gifts we willingly offer?' _the voice of the Plant argued.

_They do it selfishly, and constantly!_

_'To allow their children to grow and live?'_

I clamped my mouth shut until it began to numb. I couldn't think of what I should do next. There as what I thought was right, then there was the Plant, Vash, Meryl, and Millie that thought differently.

I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Millie running, but this time away from me and towards the city. "What are you doing?!"

The tall girl stopped and turned, "To help my friend!"

I pulled my revolver out and aimed it at her, "Do that, and die!"

"You won't do that."

My arm and hand, no matter how hard I tried to do otherwise, shook. "Wh-what makes you think that?!"

Millie smiled and turned to continue on her way to save her friend. I stuffed the gun back into my pocket holster.

_Why would she throw her life away for another? What good would come with that?! _

"DAMMIT!" I screamed at the night sky and kicked the ground in anger and frustration, knocking sand into the air around me. As I got control of myself, I calmed down and crossed my arms. After a few minutes, I couldn't help but look over my shoulder towards July, where Millie and Meryl were.

I did it again, no matter how badly I didn't want to look, over and over again. I clenched my fists and made my way down the sand dune.

"Trouble maker!"

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

As Meryl continued her way through the remains of the City of July, she looked everywhere for signs of Vash's brother, or the thing that he created. She turned to go towards a different direction, and as soon as she had done that, something big fell out of the sky in front of her.

The small woman tumbled back and fell onto the ground, landing on her butt. "What in the world?" she looked up to see the object, which was in actuality, was a boy in a black coat. She instantly noticed a resemblance between the boy with Vash and Knives.

_This must be…_

"Yes, I am Cherub, the one that you fear so much! And the killer of Vash the Stampede!" The vile grin of satisfaction on the boy's face gave Meryl chills. 

"Sorry to say," she said, pushing her fear behind her, "but you didn't do to good of a job with Vash."

"What do you mean? You're lying!" a look of concentration appeared on Cherub's face, "You're telling the truth…No matter, after I take care of you, I'll go straight for the Humanoid Typhoon and finish my mission."

"Take care of me?" Meryl whispered.

Cherub jumped backwards a five yars, placing thirty feels between him and the woman. That was when Meryl first saw the wings, huge and shimmering, shining in the moonlight. He raised his hand towards Meryl, and a strange light appeared upon it.

Closing her eyes, Meryl looked away and thought of something that could calm her. Oddly enough, to her at least, Vash was the first thing to come to mind. 

"NO!" a familiar voice shouted out, and when Meryl opened her eyes, she could see Millie, her partner and best friend, standing between the two.

"What? A second one?" Cherub was slightly surprised, but that feeling quickly left him. "Just another target. You shouldn't have come here, I don't see why you did."

"Well, I'm not leaving!" Millie said with a tone that Meryl did not know the gentle woman was capable of.

"Oh, Millie…" Meryl said.

"Fine! Then you will both die!"

More energy poured out of Cherub, his eyes glowing blue, and his arm changing shape and color. As it grew and contorted into something that Meryl could only imagine in a nightmare, the boy called over the energy that Meryl just then noticed was deafening.

"Humans, meet the Angel Arm!"

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A/N: Well, at least that wasn't as short as I was expecting it to be. Still, I wished I wasn't so lazy when it came to writing and updating. It takes me two weeks to update with something that takes me only 4 hours to write. _

I am so lazy…

Well, it's that time again! Time to review! ^_^


	13. Chapter Twelve: HIS MERCY

NEW A/N: I must say one thing:

BAD FANFICTION.NET, BAD!! For some reason, my scene dividers did not appear to have survived the transition from Word to FF.net, so I must apologize the difficult reading that it must have been. Unless of course you didn't read this before this reposting, then in which case, go read it now. Now I need to use those long bar thingies. Many, mant thanks to luna-kitsune-blu (GO READ HER FICS) for pointing out the mistake!

I now return you to your regularly schedualed programing:

OLD A/N: Well, here I am with another update, and hopefully this one was reasonably timely compared to the others. Hope this one is good, since I have been thinking about what to do in this one since before I started the fic at all…

Please be patient with this chapter, for it is 'insanely long'. Although I know someone who has said they liked 'insanely long', I'm not sure if that'll be true concerning this chapter. In my personal opinion this chapter was much too long, but I needed to get it all in there, and there was no place I could have split this into two chapters without losing the, hmm, 'rhythm', I suppose is way to describe it.

Well read on, and kudos and many thanks to anyone capable of reading this entire chapter, a chapter TWICE (and I'm not exaggerating) as long as most of the others.

Please, after reading all this, review!

(there is no A/N at the end, so everything is stuffed into this beginning one)

* * *

**Along Came A Spider**

Chapter Twelve: HIS MERCY

The giant silver and blue weapon that had replaced the boy's arm kept growing with energy pouring out of him as it did so. Meryl stared down the barrel of Cherub's Angel Arm in horror. Millie still stood before the boy, biting her lip and doing her best to not look away from the impending doom.

Energy that resembled lightning cackled along the weapon as its growth slowed. As far as Meryl could tell, the monstrosity had finished growing, but that did nothing to calm her, but only to make her worry and fear grow. The boy's hair was pushed back by the waves of energy, making it flow behind him like a long cape stuck in a gale.

There was nothing either of the women could do. Running would be useless for the either blast or Cherub himself would inevitably catch up to them; fighting was pointless, neither of the insurance girls had the weaponry to take on the Angel Arm. Pleading would be the most useless; the boy appeared to have even less patience with humans than his creator-father.

_Vash…_tears streamed down Meryl's face and she closed her eyes in an attempt to stop the flow, but they continued to pour forth. _I'm sorry that I couldn't have been stronger…I'm sorry for…for everything! For the yelling, the names…the hate you must have thought I had for you. It…wasn't real. _

_But now I'll never get to tell you…_

As she awaited the coming of nothingness, a bright burst of light, strong enough to be seen through even her closed eye lids. A bloody curdling scream called out less than a moment after, shocking the frightened girl into opening her eyes. Meryl felt something around her waist, and before her, very close and shrouded in the white light of the energy, stood a angel that reminded her of someone.

"Vash, I'm sorry…"

She then succumbed to the light.

* * *

Millie raced through the ruins of the town searching for Meryl. Eventually, she came into a clearing near the center of July, but instead of seeing Meryl, there stood what must have been the creature Knives had created. The boy looked slightly kind to Millie, but even she could see the intemperate hate boiling underneath him.

In amazement and confusion, the tall woman watched as the boy raised his arm and pointed it at something, and the arm began to transform. Following the direction, she saw Meryl sitting in the street in front of Cherub.

In the pit of her stomach Millie knew what the growing replacement for the boy's right arm was.

"NO!" as she screamed her lungs out, the tall woman raced over and placed herself between the gung-ho gun and her best friend. She stared straight into the eyes of the murdering teenage version of Knives and Vash.

A hint of shock and confusion crossed Cherub's face. "What? A second one? Just another target. You shouldn't have come here, I don't see why you did."

Using all the anger and rage she contained, Millie screamed at the other with as much malice as the gentle woman could muster, "Well, I'm not leaving!"

She heard a light whisper from behind her that she recognized as Meryl saying "Oh, Millie…"

"Fine! Then you will both die!" Cherub shouted. The Angel Arm continued to grow, as did Millie's fear. _Give me some strength…please…_

_"Don't worry Big Girl, just a bit longer!"_

Millie didn't know whether the voice was in her head, of if she had really heard it. Either way, it helped quell her anxiety, albeit by only a bit.

The tall woman looked away from the horrible weapon that was aimed in her direction and bit her lip. Her eyes watered.

_"You gave me what I needed to do to face what I feared! _

_"If you gave me what I needed to stand before the demons of my past,_

_"to look into their eyes and still declare that they were wrong, _

_"to give me the courage to decide that I need not abide to them for what I did in the present, _

_"to give me the determination to stand up to them,_

_"to face, with courage and resolve, what I knew to be wrong, even if I myself had created them,_

_"to try to change them and make up for them the best I could, _

_"then I KNOW that you can face this!"_

Her eyes opened and her tears stopped. Millie stood straight up, and with pride, looked down the cannon directed at her. She stomped her foot and glared at the boy before her.

Cherub's haughty grin died quickly at the new aura the woman, who he had thought to be nothing but a gentle fool, gave off. Soon, the grin returned, but with this one had the sensation of him being glad to find someone with such countenance.

A bright white flash quickly appeared, and Millie was forced to look away. A scream off agony echoed around her, but before she felt the light consume her, she felt something around her, and she could see what appeared to be an angel guiding her.

* * *

I rushed through July with all the energy that I could muster, searching frantically for Cherub. I did not know why I was doing this, since I should have been content with him tearing the humans to shreds, but at the time of learning that it was Millie and Meryl, not someone sifting though the city's remains or some criminal using the place as a hideout, I had the strangest sensation enter my system.

With no reason, as far as I could tell, I got the urge to run to them. Instead, I convinced myself that I was looking for Cherub, which I knew was a thin lie, since wherever I found one, I knew I would find the others.

I knew the direction Cherub was from his mind, but moments before, I felt the waves of energy that must have been the Angel Arm pass through the city as it grew and charged.

My lungs burned, but the thought of the Angel Arm pushed myself on harder. I rushed around a corner, almost tripping in the process, and sprinted for the center of the city. I nimbly jumped over piles of debris over and over, only going around the ones I quickly deemed impossible to scale.

_I shouldn't have waited so long after Millie ran off. What was it, five minutes? Ten? Fifteen?! _I screamed at myself. I clenched my teeth and pumped my legs fast, each limb threatening to fall off from exhaustion. I did what I could to use more of my energy. Being a Plant gave me reserves that even the healthiest and fittest human could not dream of achieving.

I skidded around the final building, and there before me were all three of them. Meryl, Millie, and Cherub. The shorter woman was sitting on the ground with he eyes closed, and I could see she was crying. The taller woman was staring my creation down with a gaze that, only on the face of someone as kind as her, could scare the most merciless monster into cowering away.

And Cherub, lacking all mercy possible, naturally stood before the two women, Angel Arm at the ready, with a grin of pleasure across his face.

_No time, no time, no time! Damn it, I waited too long to get moving! I need to think quickly! _I thought.

As I looked over the situation, I thought that there was no way to prevent the annihilation of this city's remains, nor was there any way to convince Cherub to stop, if it was possible for him to willingly stop at all. My eyes were stuck on the Angel Arm, the giant cannon was fully grown now, awaiting the last bit of energy to be collected to fire.

My eyes locked on to the orb of energy the was within the growth. Being unshielded by the Angel Arm, the large orb, which a large portion of the energy that would be fired, was an easy target. My memories went back to the fight between Vash and I, when he used the cross punisher to force my two Angel Arms to revert back to normal.

I pulled my colt out of my pocket, and as I aimed the revolver at the mass of energy, I began to move towards the two women. I fired the weapon, sending a bullet towards Cherub. The small piece of metal quickly pierced the energy, causing the Angel Arm to become unstable. It sent out a bright flash of light, but luckily I was expecting that, so I looked away, and that, along with my distance from the light, prevented me from being effected by the light, which was more than I could say about the women.

Being a part of his body, the pain in the weapon caused Cherub to release a horrible yelp of pain.

I rushed for the two women, and I placed my arm around the waist of Millie and heaved her up, and then I did the same (albeit much more easily) for Meryl. The short woman made groggy from the flash of light, mumbled, "Vash, I'm sorry…" I could not possibly guess what the two of them could have seen or heard during the flash of light, although both undoubtedly thought themselves dead.

Sparing a glance over my shoulder, I saw Cherub doubling over in pain. He fell to the ground clutching his right arm, and looked up, right at me, with tears in his eyes. Right then, at that moment, he appeared to me as a child who had his heart broken, and I finally realized that, despite why and how he was created, he was my son.

I looked before me, dodging the rubble and ruins with the two humans in my arms. _Two humans that I had saved…I still don't believe this. I don't even know why!"_

I continued rushing until I made it to the a large building, one that appeared to be fairly intact. It had all the markings of a large, distinguished hotel. I ran for a hole in the side of the building that once contained a gigantic window, but now only held spider webs.

Thankfully the hole was more than large enough so that I could jump through with both women in my arms without having to do any acrobatics to fit. Finding myself inside what had once been an ornate and fancy lobby, I searched for what I had hoped would be there.

In the corner I saw it: a doorway to the basement. I pulled the already open door the rest of the way with the tip of my boot and I did my best to make it down the stairs carrying two humans, both of which were still in a mild case of shock. When in the basement itself, I placed the two girls on a couch I found there.

"If he fires it now, this room will remain intact," I said to no one in particular. It was the truth. The room was already in good shape, and after the original Angel Arm blast and thirty years of abandonment, that was a very good sign of durability.

I stood and looked down upon the two figures that just then began to stir. _Why am I doing this? Have I become weak, have I become Vash? _I took a deep breath and cleared my head. I needed to find a way to stop Cherub so that I could think all of it through. After looking at the two women—two women that had been cared for by two of my brother, and a wayward subordinate—for a few moments, turned and raced back up the stairs, returning to the lobby.

Instead of exiting through where I had entered, I climbed another set of stairs, and then another, and another, until soon I made it to the roof. I threw the door open, and stepped back out into the cold air, realizing that night had fallen in full. The twin suns were gone, and the stars and moons lit the sky with their pale eerie lights.

But there was another group of lights that caught my attention, ones that I had hoped would wait longer to make their presence known.

The tiny white streaks that had been small pieces of the Fifth Moon falling were replaced by giant fiery red gashes in the sky; the larger portions of the dead satellite were just then succumbing to the will of Gunsmoke's gravity, and because of that fatal embrace, the remains were plummeting towards the planet.

_The angle…speed…acceleration and mass…the tug of gravity and the planet's rotation…_I ran numbers through my evolved mind, a process that rivaled that of the human's most advanced calculators. _Damn it! _I had realized the targets of the meteors' unintentional kamikaze flight . _What are the odds of this?! _

I then realized that not only did I have to find and stop Cherub, but I had a time limit as well before July suffered the barrage.

A shrill cry from behind me cut through my deep thoughts, and as I quickly jumped in a complete circle to face the oncoming attack, I was struck. Cherub's flight-powered body slam was enough to send me over the edge of the building and clear across the gap to the next. I slammed onto the roof of the much smaller structure with a slam that knocked the feeling out of my right arm for a moment.

I grunted as I hefted myself back onto my legs. Cherub smoothly turned in the air to come back for another attack, but I, already knowing what he was going to do, was able to dodge the boy's frantic slam.

"I do not want to hurt you!" I yelled out to him.

"Shut up!" the boy screamed without turning to face me. He roughly landed onto the roof, his momentum making him skid. As he turned, Cherub used that force to propel himself into a high-speed sprint towards me.

I braced myself, making it seem as though I was going to hold my own, but at the last moment I jumped away, rolled under my child's left wing, and brought myself around to a crouching position.

"You don't care anymore! You're no better than that damned Vash!" he had come to a full stop, and slowly turned. His face was red and tears fell down his face. "You don't give a damn about me; you're no Father of mine!"

I felt a shake, and looking down, I saw that the portion of roof I was upon was weak and threatened to crumble under my weight. Looking back to Cherub I spoke, "That is not true! I need only more time to think of what I must do."

"You shot me!"

I did not know what to say to that. I could only imagine what was going through the boy's head…

No…I knew full well what he felt. The pain, the crushing agony, it was how I felt the first time Vash shot me, and then again after he defeated me in our last fight. It was the same feeling of anguish and loss that I had felt, and become accustomed to, but in his case, it must have been increased tenfold.

To be shot and defeated by your rival and opponent, whether brother or not, was one thing, but to suffer such a grievous wound, physical, mental, and emotional, from the one being you believed in, and cared for; to be wounded in such a way by your _father_ was much more devastating.

"It…it was not my fault, I had no choice!" _great, now I'm starting to sound like Vash; no reasoning behind my actions…_

Cherub let out a scream and kicked off, flying in my direction with impressive acceleration. Even I, his creator and…_father…_did not fully anticipate his power, especially in this weakened state of his.

I quickly jumped into the air and slammed my feet into the section of roof that I had been standing on. Already weakened and rusted, the area shattered beneath me, and I fell through so that Cherub passed harmlessly (other than the slight shock wave caused by quick movement of air caused by his speed) overhead. _Just as I thought…_I said to myself, slightly glad that that tiny evasion had worked.

What I was not glad about was the fact that the next two floors were as weak or weaker than the roof was. I smashed through both and then landed (If that word could be applied to what I did), painfully, onto one of the more sturdy floors.

Thankfully, my rear broke most of the impact of the fall. "Damn it." I whispered as I rubbed the sore area.

Checking left and right to make sure Cherub was not trying to plow his way through one of the soft walls or one of the doorways or windows. I felt a tingle in the back of my head, and I looked up as Cherub was entering through the holes I had created. His wings were laying stiffly along his back so that he would fit in the small holes.

This, of course, coupled with gravity, and the momentum he had _before _he dive-bombed into the building, gave him an incredible amount of speed. I rolled out of the way just as he smashed into the floor, causing it to shatter. Everything in the small room, including myself, fell to the ground floor.

Picking myself up from the ground, I shook my head to make the dizziness and loud banging noises to leave my skull. Even in the unlit, dark room I could recognize Cherub's body laying on the ground from his shimmering wings.

Despite him being far out of reach, I stretched out my arm as if to touch him. As Cherub stirred, I turned, realizing that I had little time before he made a another mad and uncoordinated attack towards me. I front-rolled out a nearby window, and landed in the street.

_That was no good. He was incapacitated, but I could still sense that he was too strong and full of anger to calm. How am I going to do this? Run away with what little I have until an answer comes that fits my problem?_

I was no longer thinking of Cherub and the current situation.

_No…I have been doing that for one hundred thirty years. I will run now, but only because, for once, I really do have a plan._

I figured that running until Cherub, through his use of immense adrenaline and self-harming attacks, would tire until he proved no threat. Of course, the thought that I, too, would tire by that time, or possibly long before, was in my mind, but I had no choice.

As I rushed down the street, away from the large hotel that held the two humans, I heard a deafening crash far to my left, on the outskirts of the ruins of July. Smoke was all that I could see of what caused it, but I knew that my time limit was up.

It began to rain.

No, it did not rain water, that has never happened upon the surface of Gunsmoke for over a thousand years.

No, it rained hellfire.

The remains of the Fifth Moon, succumbing finally to the pull of Gunsmoke's gravity well, crashed through the sky. Before, the smaller ones, more easily torn from orbit by gravity, burned up into nothingness in the atmosphere. Slightly larger ones caused white streaks that many would consider to be a falling star, or possibly a meteor shower. The larger ones caused deep red gashes in the night sky.

But the most gigantic, the ones that fought the pull of Gunsmoke's embrace to the last, survived the death-plunge through the atmosphere, and fell towards the planet's surface. It was one of these gigantic portions of moon that had caused the explosion near the edge of July, but I knew there was more to come.

I was correct, of course. Sometimes I truly hate being right, really, I do.

Crashes as far as seventy iles from July were easily noticeable by me, and soon more fiery rain plummeted towards the city. Continuing my aimless run, I hoped that none would come into contact with the hotel that was a haven for the women.

Even with everything going on around me, I could still feel the twisted sensations inside me when I thought about what I was doing. Saving two human women that were friends with my brother, who I once hoped dead, did seem horribly strange.

A projectile the size of a thomas crashed into the road before me, and sent up a cloud of dirt. I put my arm over my eyes to shield them from the cloud as I continued. I could feel the heat of the rock as I passed it.

Horrible explosions surrounded me, coming from every part of the city.

I felt it again, the tingle from my clone's mind in the back of my own, and I looked over my shoulder to see Cherub flying high above the city, flying nimbly between the steadily increasing shower of meteors.

_This will not last long; We only have to survive a while longer, and then I can figure out what it is I am to do._

A giant piece of moon crashed onto the road that I was running on a few dozen yars ahead of me. Instead of continuing over or around the hot object, I quickly turned left, onto a street that was between a building that barely stood upon its own strength and a pile of rubble on the other side that had once been a building itself.

Cherub, still under the influence of adrenaline, impatience, and rage, created a shortcut by tearing through one side of the building and coming out the other. The already unstable structure collapsed just as the boy appeared out of a window and continued the chase.

The bi-winged boy flew down so that he was skimming closely over ground and, despite the fact he needed to avoid the falling celestial debris more so than I due to his large wingspan, was catching up to me very quickly.

I jumped to my left to avoid a large rock that plowed into the ground that I had been running on, and continued my sprint. The shower would soon end, but I did not know at the time whether that would be a good thing or bad. Cherub also had to dodge a large boulder aimed at him, and he did so by barrel-rolling to his right, tearing through a wall and then doing the same again to bring himself back behind me. It was obvious by the way he crashed into walls and buildings that he was doing it purposefully and in a way that he would not harm himself.

After making a left turn into a section of the city that was covered with nothing but garbage, I went from running to jumping. From twisted iron bar to metal pole to wooden rafter I continued my aimless escape.

"Why do you run?" Cherub's voice was clear enough to me that not only did I realize that he had closed the gap between us quickly, but also the storm of fiery hail was waning. "Why don't you shoot me!? Huh, _Father?!"_

I did not answer; I could not think of one. His use of the word 'father' went from one of endearment to one of contempt.

"You're just like _him _now aren't you?!" You just tricked me!" He let out a yell and thrust his arm out in an attempt to make contact with my skull, which failed. I dodged his kicks and punches, which slowed him down, my moving slightly out of the way, or jumping to another spot at the right moment.

I could not keep it up forever, though, so I had to find something quick that would slow him down. As I thought this, a saw a large wall that appeared to be made of wood. There was a lone window on the giant section of wall, so I made right for that. I leapt up and through the hole and landed gently onto the road. I braced myself for the sound that would come next.

A loud slamming noise and a short, but painful yelp echoed from the other side of the wall. As I let a few moments pass, I decided that Cherub was now out of my hair for a great while.

_I'm sorry, _I said with my mind in hopes my son would hear it.

The wall was not made of wood. Wood, being a rare and expensive commodity even in a place that was once the largest and most prosperous city on Gunsmoke, which led to imitations being made. One of the poorer ones was a simple wooden paint-like substance spread onto steel to make it more pleasing to human eyes.

That was what the wall was. Instead of pushing through the structure like he would have any wooden one, Cherub slammed full-force into a steel reinforced wall.

After waiting more than a few minutes to catch my breath, I turned to the sky. The shower was all but done, but it had passed July and if I was correct, only a few other smaller human settlements were in danger. There was nothing to do, of course, but odds are the damage would not be too great.

I surveyed where I had ended up, and I quickly recognized the building before me on the other side of the street; it was the one I had fell through at the beginning of my race with Cherub. That meant the hotel I had left the humans at was on the other side. I decided that, since Cherub must have been incapacitated by his crash, I could get the women, return them to Inepril, leave them with Vash, and then leave again to find Cherub and sort this whole ideal out.

Not wanting to take any longer than needed, I ran through the door-less doorway of the building. As I did so, I noticed the structure shook from my entrance. Cherub's attack on the building earlier had left it weakened. In fact, the only thing keeping the building up was a thick wooden beam in the middle of it.

Being careful not to make the building move too much, (on account that I did not want three stories of home falling atop me) I made my way to the other side and exited through a large hole in the wall. I stepped onto the road and looked to where the hotel—and Meryl and Millie—were supposed to be.

"No…" I could feel the blood leave my face. In the spot that had once been my hiding place for the two humans was nothing more than a smoking pile of rubble. A large portion of moon had crashed into it, tearing all the way through the sturdy, six-story story building down to the basement.

I clenched my teeth and squeezed my hands into fists so tight that I could feel my fingernails draw blood from my palms. Doing my best to slow down my heart and my breathing, I slowly made my way towards the carnage.

_Nothing…nothing could possibly have survived this…_

My chest hurt and my gut felt as if I had swallowed heavy stones.

I heard a smashing noise behind me, but thinking I had nothing to fear, I did not turn away from the scene before me of the smoking rubble that contained my brother's closest friends; two people—two _humans—_that caused these feelings to go through me.

Suddenly, I sharp pain shot through the back of my head and spine, and I flew forward, slamming into one of the few sections of wall still standing. I slumped down, but managed to turn enough that I was then sitting in the direction of whatever hit me.

Cherub, silver wings splayed out to his sides, stood in front of me, glaring with all the immense hatred, despair, and pain that he could muster. "Why do you _HATE _me?!"

"I do not hate you…" I managed to get out. I had lost any will to fight that I had pervious to the revelation of the humans' deaths.

"Then why do you help the humans?! You're nothing more than a _hypocrite!_"

I stared at him without making a sound. What could I say? The boy was right.

"Everything I knew was a _LIE_!!" cherub's jaw began to quiver while he spoke. "Now I know that humans are not the _only _ones that cannot be trusted, they are not the only ones that deserve to _DIE!!_

"There is none on this world that deserve to live, deserve to be trusted, and most of all, none that deserve to be _happy!"_ he slowly walked towards me, bent down and grabbed my weapon. I had no reason to stop him; I had made my choice when I saved the women. Now I had to live—or die—with whatever consequences that action will bring upon me.

As he spoke, Cherub the Seraphim, my son, stared wistfully at the revolver that sat upon his palm, "Everything I knew was a lie; therefore my life is a lie; lies do not deserve recognition. My life is pointless! Worthless!" tears streamed down his face, "everything I hoped for, looked for, wished for, cared for turned around tried to destroy me!

"I had hoped for one thing, really, after finding my father. _No, _I have no father, really. I am nothing more than a toy or a little experiment to you?! _ARE I NOT?!_" his piercing glare forced me to look away without answering, "No matter, I have gotten over all that."

_Why do I find that hard to believe? _

"The one thing I was really searching for was _Eden. _But…" the last Gung-Ho Gun, the most powerful of them all, was replaced by the boy that he really was, "That is _gone! _Now that I look back, though, it does seem obvious that I had no hope at all. I have lost all wishes of a family, of a home, and of happiness." His gaze went from one of sadness to horrible determination, which the boy shot at me with a painful glare.

"I WILL NOT BE THE ONLY ONE TO SUFFER!!"

The barrel of my gun opened in Cherub's hands, revealing the static energy within it. His other hand gripped the energy, and pulled it free from its encasement, sending thin red bolts of electricity through the air around him.

His teeth were clenched together to prevent any sound of pain or agony caused by the absorption of the dark matter to screech forth. The bolts disappeared as the last portion of the energy entered Cherub's body. The boy fell to one knee, and placed a palm on the ground to prevent himself from falling.

The energy was gone, but it was now inside of Cherub himself; the key to unlocking his real power had been turned. A bright flash of light blinded me momentarily, and forced me too look away. A high-pitched scream accompanied it, making my ears ring with the sound.

When my vision returned, I directed it to where Cherub had stood. What stood before me made my jaw drop and face pale.

Cherub was no longer himself by any means whatsoever. His hair had gone from the pale blonde and blue that belayed some of his power and wrath to a black as dark as night with giant streaks the hue of gore. His eyes glowed with the same shade of red as the streaks in his hair.

Those were unimportant to me at the moment. In fact, at the time I had not seen his hair and eyes at all. It were his wings that amazed me. The two original ones had grown double in size, and four more accompanied them. A pair grew from the spot between the originals, but they pointed more downward at a much sharper angel than the first ones. Another pair grew from the small of his back and were much, much smaller than the other four, only about three and a half feet long. Each wing was a dark shadow, everyone gone from silver to a color as dark as a black hole. They still somehow shimmered in the moonlight, though, giving of a horrible beauty.

Before, Cherub had been the closest thing to a child he could have possibly been, but, after the second and final transformation from the elegant and strong angel to this hell-beast of a demon, he had matured into the supreme being that I had once envisioned when I created him; a being that could project a one-hundred percent output of energy and power.

The irony of it all was going to, literally, kill me.

Smoothly he stuffer my revolver into one of his own pockets. "You had once had a dream, Father," even Cherub's voice gave off power and a strange energy now. The tearful voice from before had disappeared, replaced by one of grim seriousness and determination, "It was to create a place you and your sisters and brothers could live; an Eden.

"I once believed that dream. But, now I have been enlightened. Plants are no better than humans, you yourself have shown me this today. I now have my own dream to create, one that is true.

"I will kill everything until only I remain! Both Plants and humans will fall before me, and I will truly be the most powerful being in existence! I will not make an Eden for myself nor anyone else.

"I will make this world into a _HELL_! This world will boil over with Hellfire and death, and nothing will stop me! Everything on this world will _PERISH!"_ He slowly rose into the air with little more effort than one would show when standing.

Each pair of the Seraphim's wings flapped in a separate rhythm. He pointed both his arms out at me. "Prepare to die, _Father,_ but do not worry, I'll do what you created me for. I will slaughter the humans!" he smirked, "I'm just going to clean up the Plants and everything else along with them." Bloody lightning crackled across his arms, and I turned away.

There was nothing I could do. Running would do no good; besides, I had no place to run to. Vash would probably shoot me down himself if he learned that I let Millie and Meryl to die. I had made my choice when I saved them before, that I would not continue my original dream.

A lot of good it did for anyone.

I heard the sound of a gun going off to my left, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Cherub spinning in the air, some feathers floating to the ground. Something had interrupted his attempt to create the two Angel Arms on both limbs. _What the Hell…?_

Two X-shaped projectiles flew from far to my left, and connected from the confused and stunned creature. Cherub fell to the ground. He managed to stand, but he was wobbly as he did so.

The energy inside of him is too much for him to take control of so quickly. For him to attempt two Angel Arms, to keep his almost unbridled power in check, and then to get hit by a weapon was too much for him.

Suddenly, from the direction the projectile had come from, came a volley of bullets. Dozens of them flew over and impacted Cherub's wings with the accuracy of someone that obviously knew what they were doing. Feathers and blood burst from the impacts.

Cherub stumbled backwards, cringing in pain. His top left wing had suffered much of the barrage and he had it across his chest, and cradled it with his right arm. Letting out a yell, the boy spread out his black wings and his blood-red hair flew everywhere due to all his movement and the gusts the giant wings caused.

"NOW, MILLIE!!"

Looking over to where the gunshots and the voice came from, I saw the humans, Millie and Meryl, climbing over some wreckage. Meryl had fired the volley of bullets that hammered Cherub and the giant X-shaped projectile had been from Millie's stun gun.

Raising her weapon for another shot, the big girl braced herself and fired. Cherub caught the first shot, and tossed it aside. He stepped forward as if he was going to charge, but the next one hit its target and stunned the Seraphim. The next two slammed with full-force into his torso, the power sending him clear across the road, and slamming into the weak and unsteady building.

I heard a loud smash, and knew that he had made contact with the weak central support of the building. Without it's only support, the three-story building collapsed onto Cherub in a cloud of smoke, dust, debris, and shrapnel.

Struck motionless in awe of the girl's victory, it was a few moments before I attempted to stand. A hand reached down, which I grabbed with my own. Millie pulled me up, and I saw that both were completely unharmed. Meryl stood off to the side with her arms crossed, shaking her head.

"But…how did you two…"

Meryl interrupted, "did you really think that when we woke up we'd stay in that dump? You're as dense as your brother." Even through the insult I could sense a feeling of relief.

"You two were supposed to be damsels in distress, but I suppose it was turned around on me." I scratched the back of my neck, not really knowing what to say. Millie let out a short giggle, the most positive reaction I had gotten from her over the past few weeks.

"Well, just make sure you don't get caught wearing a dress," Meryl joked. That was the most positive reaction I had gotten from her _period._ "Besides, we can take care of ourselves. We are Derringer Meryl Stryfe and Stungun Millie Thompson, after all."

I looked over to the collapsed building, where the body of my son laid. It was not an entire victory for myself. Letting out a sigh, I turned away from the carnage. "I take it that you are going to bring me to my brother now?"

"That's what we had in mind," Meryl answered, "Why, you thinking about running off again, or maybe killing us?"

Another sigh escaped my lips. I was still confused, but I hoped that I could get over it soon. "I'll follow. I don't have any other choices open to me. I will go back to Inepril and—"

I was interrupted by a loud crash in the rubble of the building. Faster than I could trace, a figure burst out of the debris and went directly at me. I felt pain in my skull, then I felt only the darkness.

* * *

Laying deep under the ruins of a building, Cherub's anger boiled. His despair churned inside of him as he considered his next move.

_The humans…_he thought.

_THEY are the cause of all this! _

_THEY are the reason that I failed! _

_THEY are the reason for Father's problem!_

_THEY MUST BE KILLED!!_

_I must DESTROY them!_

Letting out a scream made up of pre rage, the Seraphim used all his might to pull himself out of the wreckage. Even with his increased strength he had difficulty doing so. A surge of pain shocked his right middle wing. A pole had pierced it, but in his rage, Cherub tore the entire limb off.

Breaking through the wreckage in a deafening crash, Cherub burst forth, and rushed at Knives. In a single blow, he struck down his father, and turned to the women. He grabbed onto the smaller human's cloak, and spun. The kinetic force that he built up from the speed tore the cloak off, and sent the human flying into a wall. He discarded the cloak, an item useless to him, atop of Knives.

Turning to the other human, who was screaming out the name of the smaller one, Cherub began another rush. The woman raised her stun gun, but Cherub smacked it from her grip. He grabbed her outfit, and roughly dragged her to the same wall the smaller one had been smashed into.

After slamming the larger human into the wall, he grabbed both by the neck and lifted them from the ground. He pushed them against the wall at the same time that he squeezed their throats.

"_You…you_ two damned _humans!"_ tears were falling down Cherub's bloodied face. The seraphim had torn off his right middle wing when exiting the wreckage, in the place of the smaller lower left one was only a bloody stump, and his upper left wing, one of the two originals, was oozing blood from dozens of wounds. The other original wing was crumpled and broken, just as that of a small bird that crashed down after its first failed attempt at flight. None of the dark, black wings survived unscathed. Whether it was a bullet hole or a wound from shrapnel, each wing bled. His face, the face of a boy, was covered with a mixture of blood, dirt, gore, and tears.

"You damned spiders! Me and Father…" he squeezed harder. They clawed at his wrists in a feeble attempt to make him let go. Their eyes began to glaze over. "We were going to do something _great! _But now…_now…" _the Seraphim let out a scream, "_NOW_ that you damned _spiders came along, _none—_NONE—_of that will happen!

"You're going to suffer just as I am! I—" Cherub froze as he felt a cold metal object against the back of his neck. Both women fell from his loosened grip and onto the ground, coughing and rubbing their necks.

"Please," a voice whispered from behind him, "forgive me for everything I have done to you. Please, accept this last gift from me; I hope it will be enough to quell your suffering."

The gun was fired and Cherub saw his own blood splatter against the wall before him and between the two humans.

* * *

I dropped the white cloak I held, and released my grip on the trigger of the derringer, stepping back from Cherub as I did so. The Seraphim stumbled backwards, gripping his throat which, after the burst explosion of blood, steady bled a fountain of red.

His eyes, now absent of the fiery red energy from before, made contact with my own, and I saw no hate in his, only sadness, only disappointment, only despair. Tears fell down his face, enough so that the blood and dirt began to fall off of it.

Never before had he ever looked more like a child than that last moment in his life and never before had I seen a being as sad and piteous as he.

Cherub, my son who I myself gave the final fatal wound, fell to his knees. His wings, once as dark and foreboding as the midnight sky, turned to a sickly pale gray. The feathers fell from them, only leaving what appeared to be the bones that held the limbs together. The blood red and black of his hair left him, leaving the long hair an ivory white.

Soon, he slumped onto the ground, unmoving. The tingle in my mind that was my connection to him died out, leaving a shallow numbness. The last of the Gung-Ho Guns, the most powerful of them all, died.

"I'm sorry."


	14. Chapter Thirteen: RELIEF

A/N: Wow, here we are. The final chapter It surprises me to no end that I've been working on this for about four months. That's 1/3 of an entire year! Not to mention, this is the first piece of writing that I have ever completed…hell, it's the first one that contained anything resembling plot that made it past the first chapter.

I would like to thank Atchika (if you've played The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, go read her fics) for pointing out a VERY stupid mistake on my part in the last chapter, allowing me to fix it and repost before any one else (I think) saw it.

I would also like to thank Luna-Kitsune-Blu (go read her Trigun fics, and Zelda ones if you've played Ocarina of Time) for pointing out that the divider thingies that I used to use did not appear in the last chapter, and therefore made it…messy. That problem is now fixed, too.

…I really need to reread my chapters before I post them. Posting rough-drafts is pretty lazy and childish on my part.

I hope you read and review, and possibly even enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Along Came A Spider 

Chapter Thirteen: RELIEF

Sand. It was everywhere, moving before my eyes as we skimmed over it in the girls' car. Funny thing, it was. I lived on this god-forsaken world for over a hundred and thirty years, but never truly took in the planet. The desert was everywhere, covering every inch of this boiling world, Gunsmoke. Everything—the sky, the sand, the air, the people—seemed so dry, so _parched._ Thinking back, I really did not know how humans could have lived even remotely enjoyable lives on a world so _desiccated, _so _parched._

The world was not unlike myself.

I let out a sigh, and thought back to a few hours before, back before the suns had risen.

* * *

_—Flashback—_

_

* * *

_

I had stood before the newly filled in grave, a solemn look upon my face. The girls, whether they were still afraid of me or they did not wish to interrupt my grieving, were about fifteen yars behind me. I had glanced over my shoulder, and saw Meryl, still both arms crossed and an impatient look about her. _Impatient to see my brother again, no doubt._

The larger of the two women, Millie, sat on a piece of metal that was on the ground and she used a longer piece to scribble lines into the sand. She was nervous about the whole situation, especially about what had occurred a few hours before. I did not blame her for her nervousness, it was logical.

_Never thought I'd think of a human as logical…_

It was the first evidence of a change that had taken place inside of me, a change that I could tell that would twist my life in a different direction. I turned my focus from the humans to the plot of earth at my feet. I knelt down.

"I'm sorry. Sorry, for everything. The pain that you went through during your time on this world; it was agonizing, wasn't it?" I smirked as I spoke to the grave. "Of course it was. The agonizing fury, ever consuming, ever excruciating; it is a pain like none other," I let out a short laugh and shook my head, "Funny how, despite the suffering, the one experiencing it is…_blind _to it.

"I went through that pain everyday of my life for one hundred and thirty one years.

"I, too, was blind to it. Ever so much worse was the fact that I was dull—_numb—_to the actions it led me to do. I was dead to everything outside of my own sphere of pain." I pushed around some sand as I thought for a moment. "Especially to," I clenched my hand, "My brother."

I let out another sigh, "It is difficult to realize your mistakes, and even more so to stand up to them. The pain I just now realized that I experienced will be nothing compared to what will occur in the future.

"I'm sorry for not allowing you to experience that change, despite the difficulty such a thing is for myself. Something like that was out of the question. I made you into something that you could not control, a power and a way of thinking that even I did not, and still do not, fully understand."

"I cannot begin to put into words the sorrow I feel for doing all this to you. Everything you experienced, everything you did, was a direct result of my own selfishness. Nothing I could have said or done would have helped."

I forced myself to swallow. "That is why I gave you the gift I did. Mercy. Funny, though, how sorry I feel for given such a gift. But, it was the only thing that could have possibly healed the self-consuming anguish and hate that you wallowed in, due to my own actions."

Standing up, I tossed the sand that I had clutched in my fist onto the fresh mound. "Again, I'm sorry. I wish I could have prevented all this from happening to you…my son."

* * *

_—End—_

* * *

We left shortly after the short eulogy I had given. Meryl, as far as I could tell, did not understand why I had taken the time to do something such as that, but she said nothing, and for that I silently thanked the human.

The desert raced under us as we moved. _A desert as dry and dead as myself…_I sighed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the larger human glance at me after I sighed. There was still something…_strange _about her mind. I still felt two minds in one place, which was impossible.

Unless…"Heh," I quietly let out a short laugh. It was so obvious now, that reason for the human's 'problem'. It was so simple that I found my earlier confusion amusing.

"Mr. Knives," Millie said, "Is there anything wrong?" From the tone of her voice, I knew she was still uncomfortable with talking to me. Hell, being near me was probably hard enough for the two of them to cope with.

"No, there is no problem," I answered, my eyes not leaving the window. A few moments after the girl turned back around and returned to her view of the desert out the front window, I said, "You should name him Nicholas."

Even without looking, I could tell Millie's eyes shot open. Meryl was the first to speak, though. "What the Hell are you talking about, Knives?" she watched me in the rear view mirror as she said it. _Oh, so she hasn't told her best friend yet…_

"The child, Millie's child, she should name him Nicholas when he is born."

I almost got whiplash from Meryl's sudden stop, and my eardrums threatened to burst as she shouted, "WHAT?!"

* * *

As we walked into Inepril after a few more hours of riding, Meryl continued to shoot words and questions left to right, "Why? Who? I'll kill him!! H-How did it happen?!"

"I'd hope that you do not really need that last question answered, considering your age," I said with a slight snort.

I received a glare from the short girl (now I know why Vash is always afraid of her), "_Shut _it, Knives. Who, Millie? Tell me!" then she added, "I'll kill him!" I flinched at that last sentence. _Poor choice of words, human…not good at all, _I thought to myself. Knowing that neither would enjoy having me in the conversation, I sped up my pace towards the apartment complex that Vash was still in and kept quiet.

I couldn't hear her, but from Meryl's "What'd you say?" Millie must have mumbled something. She mumbled again, but this time loud enough that I could hear it, although I could not make out what exactly it was that she said. Of course, I already knew the answer, so it did not matter to me. "What?" Meryl asked again.

"Mr. Wolfwood!" Millie shouted and from the sound, it sounded as if she was either angry, depressed, and confused. Maybe all three. I was still having difficulties sorting out human emotions.

Meryl placed her hand over her mouth. "Oh, Millie…I'm, sorry, I didn't mean what I said. If I had been thinking, I wouldn't have—"

"It's okay, Meryl," Millie said, and as far as I could tell, she was being sincere. The rest of the walk to the apartment was filled with silence. I led the way, keeping my distance from the humans. I knew that, despite how quiet they were around me, they did not enjoy my presence.

Truthfully, I couldn't blame them. It was weird, how I felt then. The happenings at July had changed me, and, although I was going along well, I was not sure if I could cope with it.

Finally, we made it. I opened the door and stumbled in. I suddenly realized how tired I was; all the things that had happened in July over the past night had really drained me.

"GIRLS!" I heard Vash's voice from the direction of the stairs. I couldn't see up the stairs from where I stood, but from the following 'wha-whoops!' and sequence of thumps and bangs, I didn't need to. After making my way around the corner to the stairs, there was Vash at the bottom, trying his best to untangle himself from his own limbs.

My brother finally got up, and shot past me. I had to slide to the side to avoid him inadvertently elbowing me in the chest. Vash the Stampede, Humanoid Typhoon, and, supposedly, the most dangerous man on all of planet Gunsmoke, ran to the front door, crying out of joy like a little child. Using his one remaining arm, he scooped the shorter human, who had made it to the door at that moment, into a crushing hug, which earned him a few interesting names from Meryl.

"Put me down!!" the insurance agent yelled, although even I could tell, through the scream, that she was very happy and a hint of laughter entered the command. "You're crushing me!"

"Oh, sorry Short Girl," Vash, with himself finally under control, set the woman back on her feet. She fixed her cloak and glared at Vash. "Um," he looked to Millie, "Hi, Millie!"

I sighed and shook my head, _No wonder she hits him all the time; it's the only way to get him to listen to her._ I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms.

"Hi, Mr. Vash!" the tall woman smiled and waved. "Has Ms. Elizabeth been taking care of you?"

"What? No!" Vash slammed his fist into his chest and said, "I'm a man, I can take care of myself!" he then pouted and rubbed his chest from the self-inflicted bruise, "Ouch." I sighed and shook my head in pity of my dense brother, and Meryl covered her eyes and shook her head in exasperation.

"How 'bout you, Big Girl?" Vash asked. He then got serious, "Anything happen while you were gone?" It was obvious what he was asking about.

It seemed to take the tall woman a few moments to think of an answer, "No, nothing that Mr. Knives couldn't take care of." Vash turned to look at me. I snorted and scowled, and looked away.

"Oh, and," Millie added as if it was common knowledge now, "I'm pregnant."

I would have paid a million double dollars to have a picture of Vash's reaction. His eyes were huge, and he stared at the woman for a few moments. "Tha-that's great, Millie!" the gunman gleefully shouted. Vash began laughing like an idiot, "Yeah! Go Wolfwood! I knew he had it in him."

"What?!" Meryl shouted, "You knew?!"

"No," Vash answered, "Of course not. But it was pretty obvious, wasn't it?"

"Uh…yeah, of course it was. I knew it form the beginning, it was so obvious!"

"...You had no clue, did you?"

"Shut up."

* * *

Later that night, after I had tossed the day away resting, I, as quietly as possible, got out of my bed, and stumbled out of the door of my room, and towards the door of the large apartment itself. Stopping before I grabbed the knob, I looked over my shoulders. No one was there. I was not completely sure if I should continue on, but I had to.

It was late, at least midnight. No one would be awake, especially he humans. After opening the door, I slid into the hallway, and shut it behind me. I made my way down the hall as silently as I could, but my leg hit something. I clenched my teeth to prevent myself from swearing at the jolt of pain.

As I felt around in front of me, I growled quietly, "Who the Hell puts a chair in a hallway?" I walked around the chair and made my way to the end of the hall. When I made it to the top of the stairs, I heard a thump.

I froze.

I heard nothing else. Could there have been someone following me? A small black cat (one with oddly large green eyes, I might add) ran from the direction of the chair, and I sighed with relief. I continued the rest of the way down the stairs and out of the apartment building.

I looked back behind me, and then continued my way through the empty, grim streets.

* * *

"Ouch," Meryl said as she rubbed her knee. "Who the Hell puts a chair in a hallway?"

"Shh, Meryl, he's going to hear," Millie said.

"He already went down the stairs, he can't hear us. He may have heard the thump, but he probably thought it was that cat." The two women had been awake all night, waiting for Knives to do something,_ anything. _When they had seen him come out of his room, they decided to follow him.

A few minutes later, they made their way down the stairs, but did not go out the door, and instead looked out the window. Even in the darkness of the night, the three full moons gave them enough light to see Knives wandering away from them.

"Do you think he's leaving?" Millie asked.

"I really don't know. But what's it matter?" Meryl said, "He may have saved us, but he's still Knives Millions, human hater and killer of millions. I think it may be for the best if he leaves."

"Maybe he'll change for good?"

"That's…a possibility, I suppose," Meryl didn't sound too reassuring, "But let's not jump to conclusions. I guess we should go to bed."

"Oh…okay, Meryl," Millie said. After both women looked out at the street one last time, and then returned to their rooms.

* * *

The next morning, Meryl groggily awoke. She left her room in search of her coffee. "Good morning, Meryl!" Millie said happily after running into her partner. _Too _happily as far as Meryl was concerned. The shorter woman raised her hand in an unenergetic wave and mumbled something along the lines of "Morning."

After successfully finding the kitchen, and pouring a cup of the brewing drink Millie had prepared, Meryl turned to go to the small room that was supposed to be their living area.

The sight before her pulled her out of her sleepy state, and made her completely awake. It also almost made her drop the coffee onto her large shirt she still wore. "Knives?!"

* * *

I looked at the woman standing in the doorway. "Yes, what is it?" I was leaning back on the couch, had my hands behind my head, and my feet propped onto the small table.

"Oh, uh, it's nothing. Nothing at all!" The woman replied. _Why is she so nervous? _"I just didn't expect to see you."

My eyes turned to slits, "What's _that _supposed to mean?" Could she have known what I did? _No, she can't. I made sure last night that no one followed me."_

"Oh, uh, nothing, nothing at all!" she laughed nervously.

I gave her one last look over, "Nice shirt." I leaned back and closed my eyes again. Meryl looked down and remembered that she was only wearing (as far as I could tell, and I didn't care to know the truth) a large shirt that she must have used for sleeping. "Oh, I gotta go change!" she ran off.

A smirk crossed my face, and I could not help but let out a short laugh. "You ready, Knives?" Vash's voice awoke me from my thoughts and I opened my eyes. "May as well get this over with." I placed my feet from the table and onto the floor. I got up and walked towards the door. "We should do this outside, unless you want it to make a mess."

"Oh, okay," my brother said. He still wore his brown overalls, and white shirt, but they were spotlessly clean. His face was cleanly shaven and his hair was as pointy as ever. In his right hand was his left arm; his mechanical prosthetic left arm.

In the middle of the hallway as we were leaving, that female human, Elizabeth, the Plant engineer, was rushing in our direction. "We're saved!" she screamed. She hugged Vash.

"Whoa, did I miss something?" Vash said, and the woman let him go.

"We're saved! The Plant, it's all better!"

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Vash said, and shot me a look. I frowned and looked away.

The human smiled, and walked past Vash. She saw me, and her smile vanished. Nodding, Elizabeth said "Knives," and then ran past me, to the apartment, undoubtedly wanting to tell the insurance girls the news.

My brother and I returned to our walk. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him with that giant obnoxious grin of his. "Shut up, moron."

He laughed, "I haven't said anything yet."

"I don't care, shut up."

* * *

Meryl returned to the kitchen, fully clothed, and with an empty mug. The shock of seeing Knives so soon had jolted her into full consciousness, but now she needed more coffee to _calm _her nerves, instead of waking them up. She had thought that Knives had left for good, or, at least, for a while.

_He doesn't seem to be the type to go on a midnight stroll, _Meryl thought to herself as she poured more brown liquid into her mug. Mille walked in, humming. Ever since everyone had learned about her little secret, she had seemed chipper, even for her. "Good morning, Meryl!"

"You already said that." Meryl looked around, "Where's Vash and where'd Knives go?"

"Oh, I think they went outside for some reason. I guess Knives probably got loony being all alone!"

"First, it's lonely," Meryl corrected, "Second, I really doubt he's the lonely type. If he wasn't leaving last night, then he must have gone somewhere. But I have not clue where he'd want to go for one night."

They heard the door open, and a moment later, an excited and ecstatic Elizabeth joined them. "We're saved!"

"That's great!" Millie said. "…saved from what?"

"The Plant, it's all better now! It's as if nothing was wrong to begin with!"

"That's wonderful!" Meryl said, "But how? I thought you and the other engineers had all but given up on that twisted Plant."

"We have no idea, to tell the truth," the engineer said. "It's as if someone just up and came in last night and fixed the entire thing, and left without saying anything." Meryl and Millie, both wide-eyed, stared at each other. Elizabeth laughed, "As if that happened, though! It was probably some sort of previously unseen Plant disease, and it just healed on its own."

"Yeah, that…that's probably it," Meryl said, unconvincingly. The two insurance girls just smiled at each other, knowing exactly what must have happened last nigh to that Plant.

* * *

On the outside of Inepril, atop a sand dune, I stood next to a table covered with assorted tools and parts that Vash had managed top borrow from Germane, the assistant head Plant engineer. My brother sat on a chair next to the table. His left arm, which had been torn off days before, was returned to its rightful place.

I reached into the mechanical arm, reattaching wires and placing gears and various other parts. Oil and other liquids covered the ground around us, which was why I dragged Vash out of the apartment. As for going outside the city limits, I did not want an audience as I operated on my own brother's prosthetic limb.

We had been silent since the incident with the human in the hallway, until Vash spoke up. "Thank you, Knives."

I snorted, "Don't thank me for this. I know in under a week, once you started walking around, you'd start complaining about having one arm. You'd probably say something about not being able to stuff donuts into that mouth of yours as quickly as you use to."

"No, that's not it," Vash seemed strangely serious, and this time it made me uncomfortable. "I want to thank you for…the girls, for, you know…"

"I just didn't need to hear your whining if they died…and you tearing my head off in grief and anger did not seem to interest me." A stream of oil squirted from the arm and sprayed my suit. I swore and cleaned it off the best I could.

"I also want to thank you for…" Vash did not finish. I looked up, and followed his eyes to what he was looking at; the Plant.

"I told you to shut up about that."

"I just wanted to thank you for it. It means a lot to me, really, it does."

"And I wanted you to shut up about it."

After many more minutes of silence, Vash was the one to break it again, "They are good girls, aren't they?"

"I suppose," I answered, trying to act distracted so that Vash would drop the topic and leave me to my work.

"There are many more like them. Nice people, kind generous, caring. Brave, and smart. I'm glad that you finally realized that. I-I, I'm very, very happy that you have; it's what I've been waiting so long for." He seemed to be choking up and he wiped one of his eyes.

"Shut up about it, Vash."

"Please, at least tell me if you've changed your mind or your opinion about them," he said, staring at me with a look of sincerity and yearning.

I sighed, "Fine. I still think that most of the humans are selfish, arrogant, cruel, barbaric creatures that live for the sole purpose of consuming and collecting for themselves, willing to destroy anything in their path to do so.

"But," I added, "I have come to one conclusion about how I was to go about fixing that, and what to do with the ones that do not deserve to be grouped with the others."

"And that is?" Vash pried when I did not answer right off.

"It's difficult to explain. But, I think of it like this: I'd like to think that, if there is a field of weeds, but in the center, there is a flower, it is not worth destroying that one piece of good in the name of eradicating the weeds. That is what I feel that the Plant in Augusta was trying to explain to me before she died."

"I'm so happy, Knives."

"Shut up, idiot." Vash sat in silence for a few more moments as I finished completing his arm.

Vash let out a laugh, "Maybe now you'll be able to find your own 'flower', Mr. Butterfly."

"Shut up, Vash, I mean it," I said at him. He was really wearing my patience thin. "Besides, considering what I have done, it would be best if, for the rest of my life, no matter how many millennia that may be, I…was alone. It will my divine punishment to be alone forever. That is the way I want it."

Vash placed the hand of his newly reattached arm onto my shoulder, "You won't be alone. I'll always be there with you, Brother."

"Like I said, punishment."

"That's so cold."

* * *

A/N: Well, there it is. My first completed story!! Woohoo! It feels good to finish this.

I would like to thank everyone that has read and reviewed this story, and to say sorry about the horribly untimely updates and the lack of editing in the last 5 or so chapters. It did take quite a bit of planning to get this fic from start to finish, which, all took about four months. Wow, it feels like I just started this last week…

Oh, and I was thinking about writing and epilogue, but I started it and it was bad. This chapter had everything that the epilogue would, and then some. So, yeah, this is it.

I'll probably be leaving the Trigun section for a while. I had to get into Knives's mind to write this, and trust me, that's not a place I want to go back to anytime soon. Very messy and very scary. But, I will inevitably come back with something new; probably a sequel, if I can get the idea I have into something more than a skeleton of a concept. Anyways…

Again, I would like to thank all the readers for reading and reviewing!

Time to review the final chapter of 'Along Came A Spider'! Please, if you haven't already done so in previous reviews, please tell me anything and everything you liked about the fic…plus anything you didn't, of course.


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